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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 0474.PDF
FLIGHT MARCH JTH, 1946 Anglo-French Agreement Joint Standing Committee to Co-ordinate Mutual Air Services : Route Capacities to be Equally Shared AT the Foreign Office in London last Thursday, Febru- A\ ary 28th, representatives of the British and the •*- •*• French Governments placed their signatures to an agreement which provides for the progressive expansion of civil air services between the two countries, and for the interchange of facilities on air routes which cross British or French territories throughout the world. As announced in Flight last week the agreement was reached after only a week of negotiations, and it takes effect immediately. The rapid and satisfactory negotiations were made pos- sible primarily by the fact that the French and British Governments both share the same basic ideas on civil aviation, namely the desire to organize regular international air services in a reliable and orderly manner. This was stressed in a statement last Thursday by Mr. Ivor Thomas, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Civil Aviation, who led the British delegation which went to France to negotiate this agreement. He paid a warm tribute to the French delegates, particularly M. Jules Moch, the French Minister of Public Works and Transport, who had shown the greatest understanding and co-operation throughout the negotiations. The agreement supersedes all previous Anglo-French air transport agreements, notably those dated August 5th, 3929, and August 12th, 1937. It follows closely the stan- dard form of air transport agreement which was drawn up at the Chicago Conference in 1944, and this, no doubt, facilitated its early conclusion Features of the Agreement Most of the essential features of the new agreement areparallel with those included in the very recent Bermuda agreement with America ; such points as the granting ofmutual rights for through flights, for non-traffic landings, and for the disembarking and embarking of internationaltraffic under certain agreed conditions, and machinery for joint agreement on rates, are included. In addition, thefundamental principle that the capacity of all airline ser- vices operating to, or through, their territories shall beara close relationship to traffic demands, has been affirmed by both Governments. Perhaps the most notable step forward, however, is theinstitution of a standing joint committee consisting of eight members, four from each country. Of each four, two willbe representatives of the airlines, and the other two of the aeronautical authority of the country concerned. The com-mittee is to meet alternately in Paris and London, with the object of co-ordinating mutual air services, and sub-mitting proposals, when necessary, for modifications affect- ing any of the items covered in the annex to the agree-ment, such as rates or traffic schedules. Mr. Thomas said that fares would be fixed at reasonablelevels, and that, in particular, due regard would be paid to economical operation, reasonable profit, and to the char-acteristics expected from each service in such matters as speed and comfort. The annex to the agreement providesthat the recommendations of the International Air Trans port Association shall be taken into account when fixingrates, but when their recommendations are not available, any questions affecting rates for route stages which are,common to both countries can be decided mutually by the airlines themselves after consultation, if necessary, withthe airlines of any third parties operating over the same route. All such rates will require the approval of the twoGovernments, but nevertheless this arrangement seems to allow the airlines concerned considerable latitude in ratefixing. The subject of "fifth freedom" traffic has been dealtwith thoroughly and, in the case of international services, the principles adopted are similar to those in the Anglo-American agreement, namely, that the capacity of these services will meet, primarily, only the demands for trans^port between country of origin and country of destina tion. U.K.-France Services In the case of services between the U.K. and "Metro-politan" France, however, it is a much easier matter to forecast with some accuracy the likely demand, and so, .at the outset, the aeronautical authorities of the two countries are to agree on the capacity of such routes. Theroutes affected are those between London or provincial towns in U.K., and Paris, or provincial towns in France,including also points in Algeria, Corsica, Morocco and Tunisia. Subsequently, the airlines themselves can adjustfrequencies either temporarily or permanently in order to meet fluctuations in traffic, but the capacitywill always be divided equally between the British and French airlines concerned. Incidentally, if one countryis granted the right to operate one of these routes, the right of the other country to participate in that route is auto-matic. Mr. Thomas intimated that a pooling of services betweenthe airlines of the two countries has already begun. A start was made with the London-Paris route and the"heads" of an agreement have already been reached. In due course, the frequency of the London-Paris service is tobe speeded up, and it is expected that, eventually, each country will be running at least a half-hourly service onthis route. For the time being, travellers from provincial towns in the U.K. who wish to visit Paris will need totravel via Northolt, and in the very near future the French airlines will be admitted to this airfield. In due course,however, additional services will operate direct from the provincial towns of one country to both the capital andthe provincial towns of the other. Thus, passengers will be able to fly direct from, say, Newcastle to the Riviera.Mr. Thomas said that, although fares to Paris were high at the moment, it was hoped to bring them down soon. Approved Routes Attached to the annex to the agreement, is a compre-hensive schedule of routes which are approved for mutual operation by the U.K. and France. It is world-wide inits scope, and is drawn up in similar manner to the schedule of approved routes in the Bermuda agreement, as describedin last week's issue of Flight. The Anglo-French agree- r ment is, however, more specific, in that the routes acrossone country's territory, over which aircraft of the other country may fly, are divided clearly into two classes. Thefirst class enumerates routes which traverse the other country's territory either with or without non-traffic stops(e.g. from U.K., across France, to Malta, Egypt, Iraq and India). The second class sets out routes which have adestination in the other country's territory, but which may continue to points beyond, thus permitting "fill-up"traffic (e.g., from U.K. to a destination in France, but con- tinuing, if desired, to, say, Naples, Athens and Istanbul). M. Jules Moch, who was visiting this country in orderto sign the agreement on behalf of the French Govern- ment, reaffirmed the importance of the standing joint .com-mittee, and declared that it was the first time that an international organisation had been set up to co-ordinateair services between two nations in such detail.
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