Death Edict?

Nobody has yet precisely defined just what a nonscheduled airline is allowed to do--although the non-skeds carry 7% of domestic airline passenger traffic and gross $50 million a year. Last week the non-skeds, which are lines without CAB routes for regular flights, bitterly charged that CAB's latest attempt at a definition will put them out of business.

CAB's tough new order forbids any one non-sked to make more than three round trips a month over the major U.S. air routes and makes it illegal for a non-sked to fly more than eight times a month between the same two points. Thus, it would virtually put an end to the non-skeds' low-fare aircoach business. Said Aircoach Transport Association President Amos E. Heacock: the order is the result of "a calculated campaign by the scheduled airlines to gouge millions of extra . . . dollars from the public."

Blind & Deaf. The heart of CAB's case against the non-skeds is that they operate just like scheduled airlines without the legal authorization and without the responsibilities. Most of the non-skeds got their start by buying surplus war transports, are still largely shoestring operations. Since they don't have to give the public service on unprofitable runs, they stick to runs where traffic is heaviest. CAB knows that its new regulation will make a big dent in the non-skeds' business, but it offered the non-skeds something else. It would permit them to fly on domestic routes on a contract basis for the Department of Defense. But such permission is no help, say the non-skeds, unless they can also carry civilian passengers over the same runs, so that they won't have to make return trips with empty planes.

The non-skeds' best argument against CAB is the fact that they fathered low passenger rates, thus converted thousands to air travel and helped all airlines. (Bureau of the Census surveys showed that 75% of non-sked passengers would have traveled by bus, train or not at all if it hadn't been for aircoach.) In places like Alaska, non-skeds have helped bring a revolution in transportation. Says Alaska s Governor Ernest Gruening: "The Civil Aeronautics Board has been blind to our needs and deaf to our appeals . . ."

Law & Order. Despite the boost the non-skeds have given flying, CAB feels the lines cannot be allowed to violate the law by flying as regularly as they now do.

With air traffic heavy, the non-skeds' competition doesn't matter. But in a slump they would cut deeply into the scheduled airlines' business.

To the Senate Small Business Committee the CAB order has all the noose marks of a "death edict." CAB agreed this week to hold off its order for 30 days while the committee conducts a full investigation. Said Alabama's Senator John J. Sparkman, committee chairman: "It would appear outrageous to have . . . Government decree [the non-skeds] out of business."

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