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Aviation History
1969
1969 - 3103.PDF
655 FLIGHT International, 30 October 1969 ••• IATA in Amsterdam By J. M. RAMSDEN A FARES conference in ferment, costs rising, mergers in the air, charter competition, an unsympathetic US Civil Aeronautics Board, falling load factors, huge capital requirements for new aircraft . . . the problems are the same as those confronting many previous a.g.ms of the International Air Transport Association. But this year at Amsterdam, where IATA was born exactly 50 years ago, they genuinely seem just that much more unruly. The marathon fares struggle at Lausanne is a continuation of Cannes, Athens, Geneva and Dallas. Like all IATA fares controversies, it is the ultimate expression of the many economic and political pressures on the association. As the 720 delegates from 99 airline members—a record attendance—were welcomed by Mr G. van der Wal, head of the host airline KLM, the dreaded open fare situation officially took effect on the North Atlantic. Individual airlines followed Alitalia in announcing their own low fares. Press release followed press release, culminating, as we write, in Air Canada's £6S-£110 (depending on season and group-size) accompanied by the un compromising statement: "the company will continue to seek an agreed industry position . . . but is not prepared to sacrifice the substance of its revised fare structure." As IATA traffic director, Mr Don Reynolds, said: "Some carriers appear to be taking rather inflexible positions." Conduct so unbecoming of IATA members is almost without precedent; and yet there are strong signs that the club rules are changing fast. Dr van der Wal said in his opening address: "We have to inform the public and the travel trade of our aims and objectives and working methods." The report of the traffic advisory committee set the seal on what could become the new IATA code, calling for "liberalisation in the future in IATA dealings with the national, international and trade press." Only a few years ago airlines caught leaking fares positions to the press were fined a thousand dollars or more. The new openness was manifest in the release to the press at this a.g.m., for the first time, of all the conference reports. Competition from the charter operators, or contract carriers as their p.r.os. want us to call them, has long been a thorn in IATA's back, and now it is perhaps the prickliest. The director-general, Mr Knut Hammarskjbld, referred to the "straitjacket" of the 25-year-old Chicago Convention, which in Articles 5 and 6 defines the difference between scheduled and non-scheduled services. "IATA's biggest problem in the next Heading picture: HRH Prince Bernhardt of the Netherlands opens the meeting in the Congress Centre. On the far left is the IATA executive committee, comprising heads of airlines; nearer the camera are the association's permanent officials with the exception of the director-general, Mr Knut Hammarskjold, who is at the far end of the table. The meeting was held from October 20 to 23 ten years," he told the press, "is this straitjacket, which was devised by some people in Chicago in 1944." Mr N. P. Blake of Pan American estimated that one in five North Atlantic passengers are now flying by charter; Mr Per Norlin, a founder of SAS, said that 95 per cent of Scandinavians going on holiday by air were now flying charter; and Mr Ed Stohr of United believed that the figure for Britain was 50 per cent. IATA's fare-cutting battles result directly from the fact that the US Civil Aeronautics Board, as a matter of policy, gives comfort to the US independents, using them as IATA-baiters. This might not be so beastly for IATA if there were fewer member carriers, especially on the North Atlantic, each with a vote and a government behind it, and many with a subsidy. Mr Norlin of SAS reminded the meeting, in his paper World Airlines Co-operation, that 20 years ago the late Dr Plesman of KLM had declared; "The airlines themselves bear a large share of the responsibility for this state of affairs . . . The airlines are not yet convinced that through mutual collaboration based on mutual trust, commercial aviation can achieve greater development." The head of a big US airline said: "I just don't see how the North Atlantic carriers can continue to operate at a profit without mergers, unless governments are prepared to subsidise them." There will almost certainly be mergers and more collaborative agreements before the 1970 a.g.m. in Teheran. Mr Norlin reckoned that if three or four airlines with 10-15 big jets co-operated in maintenance, then investment in hangars, workshop equipment, spares and flight simulators could be cut by up to 30 iper cent, and maintenance costs reduced by 20 per cent—provided the partner with the best facilities for a particular job was chosen, uneven shares of work accepted on economic grounds, spares pooled, equipment specifications standardised, and all work performed at a
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