Flying Cargoes

In its July issue Aviation magazine told air transport operators what it had told them many times before, what most operators already knew to be true: that air express can "pump life blood" into the skeleton of the industry; that a unified nation-wide service must be created before large shippers can be induced to give heavy patronage.

Last week seven air lines extending from Montreal to San Francisco Bay announced formation of General Air Express, a cooperative organization covering 17,600 mi. of routes and serving 138 cities, with door-to-door delivery provided by Postal Telegraph & Cable Corp. The participating lines: American Airways, Transcontinental & Western, Eastern Air, Transamerican, Ludington, United States Airways, Pennsylvania Airlines. Prime advantage of the new plan to the shipper is facility to consign his goods to any destination on the General map with a single waybill. For tariffs he may consult a single consolidated table. But therein he will find no reductions. The current rates of all seven lines have been lumped together with no effort toward agreement. As before, the shipper will find air express rates from six to ten times higher than rail express. According to Aviation's careful analysis air rates must be not higher than three times rail rates if air express is to realize the possibility of some day capturing 5% of the nation's internal shipping--est.: 300,000,000 Ib. (Last year's air express: 885,000 Ib.)

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