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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 0184.PDF
82 FLIGHT FIRST ACROSS: Into Lon don Airport on January 6th came the first DC-6A Liftmaster to operate a transatlantic all-cargo service. Although owned by the American freight carriers, Slick Airways, the service is being operated on a weekly basis under charter to Pan American. CIVIL AVIATION TRANSATLANTIC BATTLE AN attempt is now being made in Washington to resolve an - argument between Pan-American World Airways and T.W.A. as to what form the American transatlantic route pattern shall take when the present arrangement expires on July 4th. Lengthy and well-reasoned cases have been submitted by both sides and the decision is now up to C.A.B.'s chief examiner, Mr. Francis Brown, to make recommendations to the Government on the conclusion of the official inquiry. Briefly, the opposing airlines hold the following views. T.W.A. are of the opinion that the Government will be wavering in its policy of fostering international competition unless it grants them permanent routes. They claim to have earned permanent rights by reason of the fact that they have shown themselves to be the lowest-cost transatlantic operators. They also say that they are having considerable difficulty in retaining staff because of the temporary nature of the present permit. P.A.W.A., who seven years ago proposed that they should be granted a virtual mon opoly of all American international routes, are now in favour of conserving the present competitive pattern established by Presi dent Truman in 1950. This, of course, gives the public a choice between the two U.S. airlines to the four principal traffic-centres of Europe. T.W.A. are urging 16 route-changes, among them the restoration of their monopoly on flights to Paris and Rome, while at the same time retaining the system of direct competition with P.A.W.A. to London and Frankfurt. The vice-president of P.A.WA, General Harris, has voiced his company's objection in these strong terms : "What T.W.A. wants is not a plan of area competition but an area from which competition is excluded. We should both stop this wrangling over routes and get out and sell more tickets." It will be interesting to see which way the decision goes; as a pointer to what, in our opinion, will be the final result, it may be said that savings of nearly $7,000,000 for U.S. taxpayers resulted from the introduction of the competitive pattern now in force. It therefore seems likely that the present plan may be retained, though perhaps with a number of modifications designed to give a more permanent aspect to some of T.W.A/s services. MEXICO GETS A D.C.A. TN Mexico, civil aviation has finally attained an official status -*- with the establishment of a separate Mexican Aeronautical Administration. Previously, air-transport activities had been under the direction of the Department of Communications and Public Works. The present move has been taken to step up the rate of development of Mexico's airline system. The new con trolling organization will be divided into administrative and technical departments. The latter will devote itself to the pro vision of better traffic-control facilities and will include a special "airports office" which has been created to study methods for improving airport construction and operation. The Mexican Government has announced that a total of 42,000,000 pesos (about $4,840,000) will be spent in the current year for the construction, improvement and maintenance of air ports. In the airport programme the aim is to provide the country with a chain of well-distributed and fuDy equipped airfields with facilities to handle the largest types of current transport aircraft. Work has already begun on a new ten-storey building to house all .offices of Mexico City's Central Airport, which itself is under going an extensive renovation programme. Special attention is being given also to the airport at Acapulco, and other airports to be developed include those at Nogales and Tijuana. ITALIAN AIRLINE LIQUIDATED AT a recent meeting of the shareholders of the Italian airline, k Ali Flotte Riunite (ALI), it was decided to dissolve the com pany and to hand over its ten DQ-3S to another operator, L.A.I. ALI's present services will continue until the Government has assigned these routes to other airlines. At the moment there is an agreement between ALI and L.A.I, which stipulates that the route sections in question should all be taken over by the latter firm. This arrangement is said to have been regarded unfavour ably by other Italian operators and it is expected that pressure will be exerted on the Government to take measures that will protect the interests of other companies wishing to share this traffic. CHANCES FOR BRITISH JETS ACCORDING to Vice-Admiral Emory Land, president of the L U.S. Air Transport Association, American airlines do not favour using Government money to develop jet-powered airliners. In aviation circles in Washington this seeming reversal of policy is attributed to a belief among the airlines that Congress is in no mood to finance a development programme for this type of equipment. This leaves America's airline industry with two alternatives. Either they can order such aircraft direct from U.S. manufacturers (and trust that they will eventually be able to recoup the high initial purchase prices which would be charged to cover the cost of their development), or they can acquire essential operating "know-how" by obtaining some of the British Comets which are to go into service this year. Several airlines have already consulted U.S. manufacturers con cerning the type of jet transports which they consider should be developed for commercial use. IRISH AIRLINE'S LOSS GENERAL sympathy will be extended to the Irish airline, Aer Lingus, which after 15 years of accident-free operation, was unfortunate enough to lose a Dakota, St. Kevin, in an accident on January 10th. During a storm the machine struck a slope of Moel Siabod, in Snowdonia, while flying on one of the London-Dublin night services. All the 23 persons on board (including the crew of three) lost their lives. The cause of the accident is unknown. It will be recalled that in 1950 Aer Lingus was awarded the Cumberbatch Trophy in recognition of its excellent safety record. T.C.A.S GOOD YEAR TRANS-CANADA AIR LINES report themselves well satis fied with last year's operations". Not only did passenger and commodity traffic far exceed all previous levels, but the company also experienced the best financial year in its history. During I951 approximately 980,000 passengers flew over T.C.A.'s North American and international routes—18 per cent more than in 1950 —while the volume of cargo and air express increased by about 15 per cent to 5,200,000 ton-miles. The carriage of "all-up" mail continued under a new agreement with the Post Office Depart ment; the amount of mail lifted represented an increase of 7 per cent over 1950's figure and exceeded 4,300,000 ton-miles flown. It is estimated that increased revenues during 1951, coupled with careful control of expenditure should result in a very substantial financial surplus for the system as a whole. A dominant influence on the growth of air traffic was the rapid expansion of the Canadian economy. The rising prosperity of the nation as a whole was keenly reflected in the amount of travel and shipment which took place last year as air transport kept pace with a general quickening of the business tempo. The gain in air-
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