Foreign Competition

After eight months of hesitation, the Civil Aeronautics Board last week finished what it started in September (TIME, Sept. 28): authorized five foreign air lines to fly passengers, mail and express in & out of the U.S. to & from Caribbean and Central American points.

Thereby a man named Lowell Yerex, a New Zealander who looms large in Central American air transport, realized a long-standing ambition. Two of his companies got CAB temporary operating certificates: British West Indian Airways, which he turned into a ferry for U.S. Army engineers and materials between Miami and Trinidad, and his principal enterprise, TACA, S.A., which covers six of the countries between Mexico and Panama. BWIA was authorized to fly passengers, mail and cargo between Miami and Port-of-Spain, TACA to fly between Miami and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Yerex' meat was poison to Pan American Airways, which has had a monopoly on all scheduled air traffic south from Miami. It was not Pan Am's fault that it had not been able to transport all the people and freight accumulated in Miami: it could not get the necessary additional planes.

Washington buzzed last week with whispers about the significance of CAB's action. Rumors were: the State Department wanted to reinforce its Good Neighbor policy; the President wanted to bring Pan Am to heel; the Army likewise; the British sought a foothold in the Caribbean. Most widely heard rumor: CAB had wanted to retreat to its former position, grant no certificates to foreign companies until the entire U.S. foreign air policy had been formulated, but it was summoned into executive session, and persuaded to take action by the State Department's Adolf A. Berle Jr.

One crumb popped into Pan Am's mouth: one of the five companies favored was Compania Nacional Cubana de Aviacion, which Pan Am owns. The other two companies: Expreso Aereo Inter-Americano, S.A., for service between Miami and Havana; and Royal Dutch Air Lines (KLM), Miami to Curac,ao and Aruba.

CAB carefully guarded its action, saying that it was no precedent for permanent policy.

And there was a joker after all: up to now KLM, TACA and BWIA had been doing business out of Miami on special charter arrangements. Now they are subject to the same priorities setup as Pan Am, the same CAB regulations.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.