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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1827.PDF
634 FLIGHT International, 17 October 1963 AIR CO E R C E IATA Holds Court in Rome By the Air Transport Editor Scene in the Palazzo del Congress!, Rome, at the public opening session of the IATA annual meeting AS last year, when fare-cheating was the theme of IATA's Dublin meeting, history will give a tag to this year's IATA a.g.m.—the nineteenth—in Rome. It was the first time that racial politics had contaminated the Association's dis cussions—but more of this in a moment. Count Nicolo Carandini of Alitalia, the host airline, laid on a five-day party for some 250 delegates and wives that awesomely rivalled the nationalistic quality-competition of previous years. The social side has to be good to attract the top people of the world's airlines, because they do not really come to these meetings to work. There are working sessions, certainly, and these are taken seriously enough for a NO ENTRY TO THE PRESS notice to be pinned to the doors. But the working papers are all circulated to airlines in advance, and the a.g.m. usually approves without dissent the reports of IATA's committees and—though not this year—the nomination of commit tee members. The highly civilized and expensive social arrangements could be dismissed with a sneer as a smashing junket, but the cynics know nothing of the knots that get untied and the ideas that are fertilized over a quiet drink between presidents in a hotel suite or at some social function. It is good for the industry and its chiefs that they can have this relaxed summit meeting each year. Though these a.g.m.s are called IATA's parliament the atmosphere is more that of a court than of a debating chamber. This year there was intrigue in the court: the African airlines, supported by some Asians and for some inexplicable reason by the Communist-country carriers, demanded that the South African and Portuguese airlines should be excluded from any policy-making positions in IATA. The demand took the form of a proposal to remove the South African Airways names from the list of nominees for the legal and medical committees. When the time came to vote (by secret ballot in view of the circumstances) the African bloc and its supporters marched importantly out of the chamber to discuss their position. There were 19 of them—Air Afrique, Air Algerie, Nigeria Airways, Ghana Airways, Air Mali, Air Ceylon, PIA, MEAL, Iraqi Airways, Ethiopian (though not, it is believed, the whole delegation), Suday Airways, Air Guinee, UAA, LOT, JAT, CSA, Cubana, Kuwait Airways, and Garuda. The two grown-up Asian members, Air-India and JAL, did not support the motion—to their great credit. There were said to be 55 votes (out of 93 members) for the South Africans, who were elected. As Sir William said afterwards. "We have to mind our own busi ness. We aren't entitled to look at a man's politics or his race or his religion. If a body such as ours goes outside its own business it is the kiss of death. It cannot be our business, it cannot be, it cannot." He cited the remarkable record of the non-political Universal Postal Union, which for 100 years had minded its own business. Chief Dan, of Nigeria Airways, said afterwards that this was not a matter of politics; it was "a matter of human rights." He wanted IATA to succeed, but it could not "blind itself to what is going on in South Africa, Angola and Mozambique today, This cannot be separated from commerce." In his view it was "a challenge to all those who believe in the rights of man and all those high-falutin' phrases." The initiative had come from the airlines, not from their governments, and they took full responsibility. In answer to a ques tion he said that BO AC could do business with SAA—or the Moon —that was their business, so long as it didn't affect Nigeria. The South Africans and the Portuguese said nothing, though one delegate was heard to remark later "Some of these people have only been in IATA for five minutes and have no professional or technical knowledge of the business. All they can think about is politics. If I could speak better English 1 would have got up and said that IATA must be free from politics because air transport, of all things, can do so much to improve political relations. The UN is the place to deal with these problems. You do not have to be for apartheid to stay in that hall and make IATA work." Inasmuch as this silly digression enabled IATA to re-affirm its non-political principles it probaby did more good than harm. Otherwise the meeting passed off harmoniously enough (and with the best-ever public relations arrangements). There was more candour, more critical self-scrutiny. Handing over the presidency to Count Carandini, Mr J. F. Dempsey of Aer Lingus outsparkled all other speakers during the week. Like all Irishmen he talks well; unlike some Irishmen he means what he says. Quoting Plesman s "The air ocean unites all peoples," he said IATA would first have to reconcile the "one world" concept with the "jarring influence of many diverse aviation policies." If aviation policy was to have "a more worthy basis than that of mere power" governments must realize that individual interests were best served by "a generous spirit of co-operation." He did not say that IATA should protect the inefficient, "but we must be wary of equating efficiency with size- Mr Dempsey was bound to say something strong about the SSI, and he did: "I assert that those who advocate the SST and at the same time talk about lower fares are offering us conflicting propo sitions." In the past, he said, "we have been guilty of some extra vagance in discarding perfectly adequate aircraft and plunging
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