Monday, Jul. 09, 1945

Three Are Chosen

For nearly 16 months, as other nations got ready to fly, the Aviation subcommittee of the Senate's Commerce Com mittee has hemmed & hawed over a post war air policy for the U.S. While the committee stalled, the Civil Aeronautics Board quietly held hearings on trans atlantic air routes, decided which airlines shall fly them, sent its recommendations to President Truman. He reportedly approved, but withheld an announcement, patiently waiting for the committee to make up its mind. Last week, Committee Chairman Josiah William Bailey, dis gusted with his poky legislators, said he would urge President Truman to wait no longer. CAB reportedly recommended:

P:Transatlantic routes be flown by Pan American Airways (which already has two routes), American Export Airlines (which now has a temporary permit), and Trans continental & Western Air.

P:American Airlines be permitted to buy American Export Airlines from American Export Lines, Inc., for $3,000,000.

At one stroke, this would put two of the biggest domestic airlines into competition with Pan Am, give it the toughest fight of its life. What is more important, it would put three of the best-heeled U.S.

lines on the international routes, where the foreign competition is most apt to be brass-knuckled. Although commercial fly ing across the Atlantic is brand-new to T.W.A. and American, flying the oceans is old stuff. American, for example, is cur rently flying seven round trips a day over the North Atlantic for the Army's Air Transport Command.

As to the routes they will fly, there was some question. Best guess was that: American Export would fly to northern Europe via Foynes (Ireland), Scandinavia and Moscow; T.W.A. would fly to London, then through middle Europe to Cairo; Pan Am would keep its present routes to Lisbon and Foynes, would be given a new route through the Mediterranean to Cairo. In addition, it is expected that Pan Am would get something it has long wanted: permission to pick up passengers in the Middle West, probably at Chicago or Detroit.

At week's end, the President still held up final approval of CAB's work. One reason: the Senate committee, which has already voted down the "chosen instrument" policy of Pan Am's Juan Trippe, intended to vote on a substitute bill to do virtually the same thing--i.e., make Pan Am the chosen instrument by barring domestic lines from international routes. It was expected that that bill would also be defeated. But if there is any more delay, most airmen expect the President to act. It would be high time.

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