Clipper, Vol. 12, No. 11, June 27, 1956

              Read From California To Calcutta, From Alaska To Australasia
Voi. 12 No. 11
PUBLISHED BY THE EMPLOYEES OF PAN AMERICAN WORLD AIRWAYS
June 7, 1^56
GREAT CIRCLE HEARING
Pan American Seeks An End To "Featherbedding" Northwest Airlines' Already Comfortable Cushion
POLAR ROUTE HEARING ENDS
CAB Examiner Hears Arguments On Bids Of PAA And TWA To Pole Vault From West Coast To Europe
The -objective of the Civil Aeronautics Board to provide appropriate competitive air service between the United States and the Orient is far from being met under the present air pattern, Pan American’s Vice President Alvin P. Adams told the Civil Aeronautics Board last month.
He stated that the shorter “Great Circle” route, upon which Northwest Airlines has a service monopoly, is 21 per cent (8 to 10 hours) faster today from New York to Tokyo than via PAA’s longer Hono-lulu-Wake Island routing, a deviation of some 2,100 miles.
Even with PAA on the “Great Circle” course, Vice President Adams said, Northwest would still have the advantage of an extensive domestic route with direct one-carrier service from the area east of the Mississippi River, which provides 54 per cent of the total United States-Orient traffic.
This testimony was presented in the reopened Frans-Pacific Route Renewal Case following the request of President Eisenhower, made last January, that the Board
GOLD MINER
Harold Judd, left, in charge of surplus sales for Supply at San Francisco, is handing a check for $672.55 to Hank Stage, superintendent of inventory control. For almost four years Harold has been miserly collecting damaged PAA insignia—flight crew wings and hat emblems. When he had accumulated a nice stockpile (277 ounces) he sent it in to be melted down, and the gold in them thar pins brought this check from the smelting company.
give him a new recommendation based on current facts and evidence in the Pacific airline business. Originally the Board recommended against Pan American flying the Great Circle Route.
“Thus,” the PAA vice president stated, “the questions which must he squarely faced are these:
1.	How much protection is it appropriate to give to a carrier already possessing substantial advantages, in other words, what additional featherbedding should he added to a comfortable cushion.
2.	Is there any longer a need to deprive the public of adequate air service in order to protect Northwest. In areas accounting for 92 per cent of the trans-Pacific air traffic, Northwest has and will continue to have both time and mileage advantages for 100 per cent of the traffic.
“Northwest now carries 65 per cent of the mail in the Pacific, and you must face the fact that passenger traffic will ultimately assume approximately the same distribution as the mail under the present route pattern with Pan American and the public it serves confined within a strait-jacket of routing restrictions,” Adams said.
Pan American’s sole objective in this case is to make available the benefits of a proper competitive system to the traveling and shipping public, which so far has been denied. “This can be accomplished with no subsidy requirements for either carrier,” he stated.
Exhibits submitted to the Board show that with Pan American operating over the Great Circle Route, Northwest can operate its Orient service at a profit of more than $6,000,000 in its first year of DC-7C service. Pan American can operate the direct service at a profit of more than $5,000,000 annually, meaning that both carriers will he off subsidy for all operations in the Pacific. “It is apparent that there is no longer any reason to withhold from the public the advantages of direct operations by both carriers to the Orient and from the taxpayer the continued assurance ol non-subsidization for all American-flag services in the Pacific area,” the PAA vice president concluded.
A five-day hearing on the applications of Pan American and TWA for a Polar route from the West Coast to Europe was concluded last week in San Francisco.
CAB Examiner William Madden listened to airline 'representatives as well as over a dozen civic and business witnesses from the four cities—San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle—that both airlines seek to link with Europe over the Polar route.
The chief spokesman for Pan American was Vice President Alvin P. Adams from the System offices.
Pan American took the position that the applications of PAA and TWA should both he granted, pointing out that the market is large enough to support both'carriers.
Last year approximately 50,000 passengers traveled by air between the West Coast and Europe. This figure was about eight per cent of tbe total trans-Atlantic traffic carried hy all carriers. Pan American estimated that it would carry 23,651 passengers over the proposed route in 1957 using Douglas DC-7C Clippers in dual configuration.
Vice President Adams said the new route would save from 400 to 1,000 miles, speed traffic by many | hours and eliminate traffic stops in the world’s most congested area— New York. He added that while total trans-Atlantic air travel has increased 36 per cent in the past two years, travel to or from the West Coast cities has jumped 94 per cent.
With the introduction of jet transports by Pan American in 1959, the time between San Francisco and Los Angeles and London will be reduced to an amazing 11 hours eastbound and 12 hours westbound.
Although Pan American has applied to have the four West Coast cities named as additional coterminals, along with those in the East and Midwest, it does not intend to operate from the West Coast to Europe via these other coterminals. Should the CAB and the President determine that the West Coast cities should be on a separate route, Pan American would be glad to accept such a decision.
SAS is presently flying the Polar
route, and two other foreign airlines, BOAC and Lufthansa, have been authorized to operate over the route. In addition, Canadian Pacific and Trans-Canada Airlines fly the route from Vancouver.
Opposition to the applications was slight. Northwest opposed the designation of Seattle and Portland as co-terminals. United also opposed this and that part of the PAA application which would make the four West Coast cities co-terminals with its eastern co-terminals.
Representatives of all four West Coast cities supported the applications of both Pan American and TWA.
PAA's SFO Golfers to Collide With UAL Swingers This Month
A joint PAA-United Air Lines golf tournament will be held on Saturday, June 30th, at Crystal Springs Golf Course. All San Francisco players who desire to participate should sign up with the captain of their department team.
SHE'S TRUE BLUE
This rare blue flyer kangaroo arrived in San Francisco last month by Clipper from Sydney. There are only three blue flyers in the world—the other two being in Sydney’s Taronga Zoo. Holding the little gal is American TV comedian Frank Marlowe, who was bringing it to his hometown zoo in Buffalo. When she grows up this kangaroo will be able to scamper along at 50 miles an hour and broad jump 50 feet.