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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 2105.PDF
FLIGHT, 23 September 1960 517 AIR COMMERCE THE first part of this week's AirCommerce section is devoted to news and reports from "Flight's" represen-tative at the 16th Annual General Meeting of IATA, which took placefrom September 12-16 in Copenhagen with SAS as the host airline, and withthe King and Queen of Denmark attending the opening ceremony (right). HORSE-TRADING AT COPENHAGEN tj VERY airline in IATA wants to expand, and it can only do soI-' internationally by getting more traffic rights. One of the strongest impressions gained at Copenhagen was the growingresentment by airlines at the increasing tendency towards restric- tionism and protectionism. The host airline, SAS—if last week'sDanish newspapers accurately reflect the feelings of this airline— is particularly bitter with the Americans. During the week of theIATA a.g.m., negotiations were going on in Copenhagen City Hall between the civil aviation authorities of the Scandinavian govern-ments and of the US (i.e., the CAB and the State Department). The American attitude is a startling reversal of previous USpolicy, which has always been based on the Bermuda principles of no limitation of capacity or frequencies. If one party to a bilateralagreement appears to be running the other off a route then, according to these principles, there should be a review of thesituation. Now the American authorities, lobbied, it is said, by the ATA, Pan American and TWA, are resorting to the restric-tionism that they have in the past deplored in others. Thus the remarks of the Danish Prime Minister, Mr ViggoKampmann, at the opening session of the IATA a.g.m. were of unusual significance, since such occasions are often ones forbanality rather than for controversy. "It is with no little un- easiness," he said, "that we in the north have noticed the consider-able restrictions that have been imposed recently upon the traffic rights of airline companies. This development has meant a breakin the efforts at liberalization made by the aviation countries since the end of the last world war, both in the multilateral and thebilateral sectors. ... It is to be regretted if the same countries now carry out a completely contrary policy in the field of aviationwhich holds such great possibilities of expansion." On the same occasion the retiring president of IATA, Mr S.Yanagita of Japan Air Lines, concluded by saying: "I respectfully submit there must be freedom of the skies, everywhere. Underfree skies, all men can meet and trade with each other with trust THE FUTURE OF AIR UNIONH AS some of the fire gone out of the efforts by Air France,Lufthansa, Alitalia and Sabena to translate into reality their visionary ideal of unity under the Air Union banner? The bestpeople to answer this question are, of course, the members themselves, all of whom were at Copenhagen. Each of the four emphasizes that the enthusiasm remains: if itis possible briefly to define the reason for the repeated postpone- ments, it is that the will is there but the way is difficult to find.M. Gilbert Perier, chairman of Sabena and co-ordinator of Air Union, emphasizes that Air Union is still moving forward, and hehopes that it will come about. It is not, he says, the politicians who are holding things up; on the contrary, the ministers of the variouscountries are urging the airlines on. Are the difficulties legal, economic or technical? "It is all of these things." he says, "andI think that one of the difficulties also could be the different standards of living in the four countries concerned." These views appear to be shared by Count Nicolo Carandim,president of Alitalia, and by Ing. Bruno Velani, chief executive of the Italian airline. Count Carandini emphasizes that the enthu-siasm is "still very much there—we all want it to come about. And we are not apologising for the fact that a step of this magnitude hasnot come about after such a relatively short period of discussions. The difficulty, he explains, is the setting up of the machinery. Itwas one thing to agree on principles, but it took time to commit them to paper and to agree on the details. Was there still a possi-bility that, as had been tentatively planned, Air Union would and mutual respect. In the jet age, international aviation can onlyprosper in open skies. We will progress no further until all air routes throughout the world—on the European continent and inAsia—are freely opened. Until all airplanes in our skies are acces- sible to all men who fly in peaceful pursuit of internationalcommerce, there cannot be trust; there will not be respect. The challenge of the jet age is freedom of the skies." These last are surprising words to come from Japan, which isa "have" nation in air transport, having much in the way of traffic rights to bargain with other airlines. Perhaps Mr Yanagita wasdirecting his remarks at the USSR, across whose territories Japan Air Lines wish to link Japan with Europe, cutting many miles andmany hours off the transpolar and trans-Indian routes. Asked later when JAL will inaugurate its service to London, Mr Yanagitasaid possibly in June of next year, though much depended on the routing—whether it was to be via Hamburg or Copenhagen. DidJAL require "beyond" rights out of London? "Like many other airlines," he said, "we would like a round-the-world route." Strains on the generosity of British traffic rights negotiators arelikely to come also from other quarters—from Alitalia, for example. Asked whether Alitalia is happy with the present bilateralagreement between the two countries, Count Nicolo Carandini, president of the airline, compares the three services per weekbetween London and New York enjoyed by Alitalia (DC>8s), with an arrangement to increase frequency by one service per year, andthe fifth freedom rights beyond Rome enjoyed by BOAC and BEA —two British carriers. These rights the Count describes good-humouredly as "lavish and to unspecified destinations." It is no secret that the Italian Government feels that the Anglo-Italian bilateral agreement, negotiated originally after the war and modified several times subsequently, no longer provides for anequitable sharing of rights between the carriers of the two coun- tries. "When you put the rights of each side in the balance," saysAlitalia, "there is a heavy weighting towards the British." co-ordinate its transatlantic schedules next April? Neither of thetwo Alitalia executives was able to confirm this. Would each carrier retain its national identity when Air Union came about?"Yes, most certainly": the name of each carrier, and the goodwill and so forth that attaches to it, would not disappear. To the question whether Air Union will tend to become a trafficrights bloc, perhaps to the detriment of BOAC and BEA, Count Carandini says: "I must emphasize most strongly Air Union isagainst nobody. We are forming it because we can no longer afford to engage in stupid, deadly, wasteful competition with eachother. Air Union is open to anyone who wishes to join." This, he says, includes BEA and BOAC. NEW CUNARDERS TO NEW YORK ? CUNARD EAGLE intend to apply for a licence to operatescheduled passenger services across the North Atlantic, it was learned in Copenhagen, and will do so as soon as the newlicensing regulations are in force. The licensing of a second British carrier on the world's most competitive international route is, ofcourse, a matter that will be decided by the Air Transport Licensing Board, and it may be expected that BOAC will opposethe granting of a licence to Cunard Eagle. An Eagle application to operate scheduled freight services across the Atlantic was recentlyheard by the Air Transport Advisory Council, but their recom- mendation on this application has not yet been made known. It was made clear last week by Mr Harold Bamberg, chairmanof Cunard Eagle, that it is too early to say whether the proposed
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