Need for a Policy

U.S. airline offices last week buzzed with the most sensational news since the Army last spring snatched 160 airline-owned transports, put them into military service. The news: super-secret meetings had been held at the White House to plan a tremendous expansion in worldwide air routes, try to iron out some of the grave questions which have U.S. airline operators in a tailspin. Besides President Roosevelt the conferees included members of the Pacific War Council (with tall, gaunt Lord Halifax representing Britain), top-drawer officials from the State Department and the Army-Navy air-cargo divisions, a handful of U.S. airline operators, headed by smart, suave Pan American Airways President Juan Trippe.

Behind the meeting were three grave problems. One is the fierce competition between Pan American, United Air Lines and Consolidated Aircraft (through its new Consair division) for control of big additional air routes linking the U.S. with all Pacific battlefronts. The second is the relationship between the Army & Navy and airline operators. Pan American is still miffed because the Army abruptly took over its mushrooming Pan Africa last October (and grabbed some crack pilots and crewmen in the process), has since set up duplicating transport services in China.

Third and most important is the international question of the post-war status of U.S. airlines which pioneer and fly wartime routes over British soil. The U.S. is pouring millions of dollars and invaluable aviation know-how into huge air bases on British territories, such as Bermuda, the Fiji and the Solomon Islands--yet to date there is no assurance of landing rights after the war.

The Presidential meeting underlined its acute need for a definitive airways policy which can become the basis for post-war settlement. The crucial issue is already posed. Will Britain and the U.S. jockey to form rival imperialisms based on air power? Or, will they unite on a common policy of Freedom of the Air as well as Freedom of the Seas?

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