La Grande Crise Over Concorde

Concorde means harmony in French. But last week the needle-nosed, Anglo-French supersonic transport was the center of a bitter diplomatic quarrel that could poison transatlantic relations for years. What set off the dispute was the prospect that the Port of New York Authority would finally refuse landing rights for Concorde at New York's Kennedy International Airport. Instead, the Port Authority's eleven commissioners deferred decision for the third time in a year. The postponement followed intense, eleventh-hour lobbying by the governments of France and Britain and threats from unions in those countries of retaliation against U.S. airlines if the Concorde is shut out (see TIME ESSAY).

The Port Authority's verdict could seal the fate of the 1,400-m.p.h. SST, which the French and British regard as a historic technological triumph. One French aviation expert warns that rejection by New York "would kill the Concorde." Concerned that the Port Authority was about to do just that, French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing phoned President Carter last week to warn that banning Concorde could "provoke a very grave crisis in French-American relations."

National Dignity. Giscard was joined in diplomatic battle by British Prime Minister James Callaghan. Before flying to Washington last week--aboard a chartered British Airways Concorde--he told the House of Commons: "It would be a great misfortune for the world's finest aircraft not to be allowed to land in one of the world's finest cities." At the White House and at luncheons with House and Senate foreign relations committees, Callaghan pressed hard for the Concorde's admission. Aides said he was "throwing all his prestige" behind the jet for "national dignity" rather than mere profit.

So it was for the French, who insisted that the anti-Concorde sentiment was part of a conspiracy launched by the U.S. aerospace industry. Said one Transportation Ministry official: "It is obvious that builders who have 90% of the [aviation] market would be hostile to anything that would not keep it this way." French newspapers and magazines picked up the conspiracy theme--with hysterical abandon. Paris Match, for example, last week breathlessly exposed "The Plot Against Concorde." With French opinion whipped to fever pitch as the Port Authority's deadline neared, U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Rush, who supports the Concorde, considered bolting the steel shutters on the embassy's windows in case of violence.

In fact, there is not a shred of evidence that U.S. aircraft manufacturers are opposed to landing rights for the Concorde. Boeing Chairman T.A. Wilson last week wrote Secretary of Transportation Brock Adams, urging the SST's admission: "The Concorde is an outstanding technical achievement. It deserves to be permitted the opportunity to compete fairly and impartially." Said Sanford McDonnell, president of McDonnell Douglas: "We believe that the U.S. cannot afford to stand in the way of a reasonable test of the aircraft." Aerospace officials fear that rejection by the Port Authority could sabotage future international ventures--including U.S. participation in development of the next generation of SSTs. Pan Am and TWA fear their landing rights in Europe might be curtailed.

Carter has already indicated to the French and British that he supports the 16-month, six-flight-per-day trial approved last year by former Transportation Secretary William Coleman (TIME, Feb. 16, 1976). Under that ruling, six carefully monitored Concorde flights a week have been allowed in and out of Washington's Dulles International Airport for ten months. But the four daily flights to Kennedy that Coleman authorized have been repeatedly blocked by New York officials.

For many citizens of France, whose President has far greater powers than his U.S. counterpart, Carter's hands-off attitude is hard to understand. "Kennedy Airport is not under my control," he told a questioner during his national callin. "I have nothing to do with it. no authority over it." That is technically correct, although Carter could threaten to cut federal spending in New York or apply other kinds of pressure--but at a considerable political risk. After Giscard's "frank and solemn" appeal. Carter conveyed the French sentiments to the one man who does hold ultimate power over the airport--New York Governor Hugh Carey, who refused to drop his opposition to Concorde. Carey cannot lightly affront the 150,000-odd voters who live near Kennedy.

Drive and Stall. Thus--almost absurdly--the Concorde crisis pits the French and British governments against the politicians and solid burghers of New York City's middle-class borough of Queens and neighboring Nassau County. To placate their fears, French engineers have proposed that Concorde be required to take off with a reduced load on a runway where its sonic "footprint" would primarily affect the reedy flats of the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. But opposition groups in Queens remain adamant. "People surrounding the airport are looking to draw the line somewhere," Borough President Donald Manes explains, "and they're drawing it at Concorde." Activists opposed to the SST have twice blocked Kennedy with "drive and stall" protests and are ready to do so again. Vows Joseph Ewald Jr., a Queens construction worker: "If it comes, it will have to land on me--I'll be out there on the runway."

Concorde's best hope for gaining entry to New York may lie with a year-old federal suit brought by the SST'S developers. The suit charges that the Port Authority exceeded its rights and violated international treaties, and it has precedent on its side. Since 1944 the U.S. has honored bilateral aviation agreements with France and Britain. Accordingly, the British and French have admitted Boeing 747s, Lockheed L-1011 TriStars and other craft; now they want reciprocity for Concorde.

New York business and labor leaders are also rallying behind the SST. Asks Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Osborn Elliott: "How can I go to Europe in search of business and jobs for New York if New York is excluding Europe this way?" In short, there is a growing awareness that excluding Concorde would be more than a staggering blow to French and British prestige. It could also open a needless, costly era of discord among allies.

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