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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1411.PDF
28 September 1956 563 The scene in the Assembly Hall, Edinburgh, as the twelfth annual parliament of I.A.T.A., described below, opened on September 77.' CIVIL AVIATION EDINBURGH ENTERTAINS THE AIRLINES WE all read and hear a good deal about the "statesmanship"and international example" of the International Air.transport Association, over whose conferences the flags ? A5JJ,n.atl0ns are unfurled; but it is only first-hand experience ofI.A. 1 .A. at work which really gives such phrases meaning. Anyone, of course, can agree on a resolution if its terms aresuitably vague and non-committal. But deadbeat diplomacy is not for I.A.T.A., even though differences of opinion—politicalas well as commercial—are often sharp. There is the story of how, at one meeting a year or two ago, the delegates of a particularcountry withdrew when the representatives of another took their seats (there were bitter feelings between the two countries at thetime). Yet, as demanded by I.A.T.A. protocol, the meeting's resolutions were adopted 100 per cent. How did this come about?"Oh," said one of the absconding delegates, "we got together in the bar afterwards."Of the 67 airlines which attended the twelfth annual conference at Edinburgh last week, the majority were represented by theirpresidents or chairmen—busy men who could easily have sent their juniors. The fact that they did not do so—and, moreover,that they came with their aides as well—seems remarkable at first, because the actual business of an I.A.T.A. annual con-ference is mainly the rubber-stamping of the year's behind-the- scenes sub-committee work. But, after taking in a few breathsof the conference's atmosphere, one soon appreciates that the working sessions are not the most important part of theproceedings. On the Wednesday, when most delegates were cruising aroundScotland's lovely Kyles of Bute, an observer remarked that so far as he could make out the conference was "just a jolly." Hemissed the point. It was, indeed, like the previous eleven I.A.T.A. annual conferences, a good party (Scottish hospitality took goodcare of that); but it was a party where everyone talked shop. In the lounge of an Edinburgh hotel one might hear a French oper-ations director discussing with the president of an American domestic airline the comparative merits of the Convair and theDouglas medium jets; or a Latin American operator talking to an Australian opposite number about the Vanguard, or about themarket price of used DC-6Bs. And in the lavish ballroom-buffet of Hopetoun House (one of Britain's most stately homes, wherethe four British host-airlines—B.O.A.C., B.E.A., Airwork and Hunting Clan—gave a ball on the Thursday evening), similardiscussions went on. Lord Douglas, to whom Mr. Juan Trippe handed over the presidency at the opening session, summed it allup when he said: "To my mind the informal side is more important than the formal business." With so many airline presidents per square inch, it was notsurprising that manufacturers were at Edinburgh in force. Let it not for a moment be thought that the industry is ever a gatecrasherat an airline party. They are out to sell, true; but the airlines want to buy also. The Vickers, Bristol, Lockheed, Fokker andother parties were buoyant (afloat might be more expressive) with good cheer; and to Napier goes the palm for the sort of sales-manship we discussed in our leading editorial on September 14. Every day, from Turnhouse Airport, the Eland-Convair tookdelegates on a round tour of the Highlands. All told, 130 airline representatives, many of them Convair-operators, were flown ona dozen flights (all, incidentally, spanner-free). It must have cost a good deal, and no doubt the aircraft could ill be sparedfrom its tests; hard facts both, but worth setting aside for the golden goodwill-opportunities of an I.A.T.A. conference. Bristol,as might be expected, had a Britannia at Turnhouse Airport giving demonstration flights; and Vickers had the free publicityof the fully booked 100-minutes B.E.A. Viscount service to London. It was, one felt, a pity that other British firms couldnot have been more prominent. The Assembly Hall in George Street was the scene of thebusiness sessions, which followed the pattern typical of countless other post-war international conferences. But the a:mospherewas free of dreary political intrusion, and proceedings moved at a pace unknown at international government assemblies. Thechairmen of I.A.T.A.'s working committees presented their reports, salient points from which are given at the end of thisarticle. A number of random impressions of the conference shouldnot pass unrecorded. There was B.O.A.C's "just right" idea of displaying foreign flowers and shrubs, flown to Edinburgh fromall over the world, in the shops and hotels (a representative of the Corporation's sister airline could not, of course, resist jokingthat they had been "flown from Kew by B.E.A."). And there was Shell's preview of a fine new film on air transport, whichaptly distilled the very essence of the conference (the film will not be distributed until the end of the year). The organizationof the meeting was unimpeachable, right down to the smallest detail, for which much of the credit goes to Mr. Robert McKean,B.E.A.'s Scottish manager. Mr. J. R. D. Tata's sparkling and witty proposal of thanks to the hosts at the closing session willbe long remembered, and the great and expressive personality of Sir William Hildred, architect and builder of I.A.T.A., wasfelt as strongly as ever throughout the meeting. Next year's annual gathering will take place in Spain (probablyMadrid), starting on September 16. The 1957 president, pro- posed and elected at the final session of this year's conference,will be Sr. Tomas Delgado, chairman of Iberia. Looking further ahead, as the airlines are wont to do, it is possible toforecast that the 1958 I.A.T.A. meeting may be held in Tokyo. To witness I.A.T.A. at work, as did some 400 people at Edin-burgh last week, is to form the conviction that air transport is a very real common denominator of the nations.. J. M. R. Points from the Conference We summarized in our last issue Sir William Hildred's open-ing address to the annual general meeting. Other addresses were delivered by the president, Lord Douglas of Kirtleside; byMr. John Profumo, on behalf of the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation (Mr. Harold Watkinson, owing to affairs of state,was unable to attend); by Sir John Banks, Lord Provost of Edinburgh; and by Mr. Juan T. Trippe, the retiring president.The actual working sessions during the week were concerned with the reports of the executive committee, and with the reports (Continued on page 566)
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