Air France

Last week was a busy one for Pierre Cot, France's Air Minister. He broke ground at Le Bourget Airdrome for the transformation of the field into a luxurious air station, since the military air base had been transferred to Villacoublay. He climbed alone into a little training plane, in which he had been taking twice-weekly flying lessons, thrice circled the field, made a dozen figure-8's and a neat landing to get a pilot's license, first to be issued to a French cabinet minister. And he signed an order merging France's five big airlines into a single subsidized company named Air France, in which the government will hold 25% of the capital stock.

Air France will be composed of Aeropostale which operates to South America; Air Union to London and Brussels; Air Orient to Syria, India, Indo-China; Cidna to the Balkans; Farman to Berlin and Amsterdam. They will share a subsidy of 155,000,000 francs for this year, 150,000,000 next year. All companies opposed the unification, but M. Cot was insistent. His announced reason was economy, eventual reduction of subsidies. A more plausible reason was the Government's desire for a united front in the hot competition against Great Britain's Imperial Airways, Germany's Luft Hansa, U. S.'s Pan American Airways for air trade routes in Latin America and the Far East.

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