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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0964.PDF
962 FLIGHT Internationa^ 21 June 1962 AIR COMMERCE BY ORDER OF THE CAB A Postscript to the US "Transatlantic Route Renewal Case"—and a Contrast with the ATLB BY THE AIR TRANSPORT EDITOR COMPETITION is so hallowed in America, and monopoly so detested, that when the US Civil Aeronautics Board of that country decides to substitute one for the other, the world of air transport sits up. Without doubt the CAB's Order No E- 18301 (Flight International, May 17, page 774) represents the most radical change in American international air transport policy since the war. The Board proposes to put an end to US-Europe double-tracking by PanAm and TWA, as set out in the lengthy report entitled The Transatlantic Route Renewal Case* The key words in the order are as follows:— "Twenty-one years ago the foreign air carriers were incapable of providing the spur deemed necessary to assure the proper develop ment of an air transportation system ... We now have our own two carriers fully competing against each other in the four most lucra tive European markets—London, Paris, Rome and Frankfurt —while foreign counterparts are not only growing in size, strength and numbers but also engaging in expanding pooling arrangements and like activities designed to further enhance their competitive opportunity . . . Today the 15 foreign flags as a group have the equipment not only to fully compete, but actually to outserve our carriers . . . The elimination of competition between the US flags would like each carrier to pit its full strength in the markets served against the foreign flags." The CAB ordsr proposes to have London and Frankfurt served exclusively by PanAm, and Paris and Rome exclusively by TWA. The Board considers it "more desirable to aim at the creation of strong single US flag carrier routings than to cling to a principle which could increasingly result in uneconomic competition by a multitude of foreign carriers.'" *The word "renewal" is used because the Transatlantic certificates of Pan American, TWA and Seaboard are all authorized by the CAB on a temporary basis. The two maps show in broad outline how the CAB proposes to redeploy the services of America's two major international air lines. Two thoughts arise: (1) The Americans have decided to repudiate a principle which the British in 1960 decided to embrace. The changes in policy in the two countries were in fact roughly contemporaneous. It was in the middle of 1960 that Parliament revoked the BOAC-BEA monopoly of scheduled routes, and in October of the same year that the US president received a report (which he had commissioned) from United Research Inc entitled Competition Among US International Air Carriers. The main recommendations of that study (which is not referred to in the CAB order) are broadly those now adopted by the CAB. Certainly the new American policy can come as no surprise. (2) This CAB report is an impressive example of the professional approach to air transport regulation. On the first point, the recent BOAC-Cunard deal represents the first outward sign of the growing awareness in Britain that it does not make sense to pursue a policy which the Americans, in the same air transport world, are now abandoning. This brings us to the second point. The CAB is not, like the referee of a football match. always just slightly behind the game. It blows the whistle not merely to enforce the rules, but also to initiate new rules as and when it thinks fit. To change the analogy, the CAB is not like Britain's Air Trans port Licensing Board—a servo-mechanism reacting rather tnan activating. It is creative, initiating change. It watches the game. enforces the rules, and employs a specialist staff (The Bureau of Air Operations) to analyse results and draw conclusions from them. If change is thought desirable, a report is produced and published suggesting why and how the change should be accomplished. There is then a public hearing at which any interested party can shoot holes in the report. (PanAm has already expressed its dis- These two maps show, very roughly, how the CAR plans to deploy PanAm and TWA services across North Atlantic and beyond. The Board report, reviewed in the accompanying article, suggests that: (I) PanAm would have exclusive access to London, Shannon/Dublin and Frankfurt, and TWA Lisbon. Paris and Borne (PanAm would till retain authority to serve Lisbon on its South Atlantic route, subject to a long-haul restriction); (2) the second US round-the-world route experiment would be ended by terminating TWA's route at Cairo and transferring its deleted points to PanAm; (3) all other existing authorizations of PanAm and TWA would be renewed except for the following, which would be deleted: (a) Madrid on PanAm's South Atlantic route, (b) PanAm's mid-Atlantic route (San Juan-Azores-Lisbon-Madrid-Rome), (c) Barcelona, Marseilles and Nice on PanAm's North Atlantic route, and (d) Philadelphia on TWA's route; (4) certification of PanAm at Lagos, Nigeria; (5) renewal of Seaboard's all-cargo authority for an indefinite period without subsidy, plus the addition of Rome; (6) basically permanent authorizations for PanAm and TWA, defined by specific points rather than areas; and (7) a tew and separate group of co-terminals—New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco— for PanAm on its North Atlantic route, subject to a "closed-door" restriction, but with stopover authority. Tiv/i V * MAIM P8INTS PROPOSED DELETED
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