Pan Am clipper, Vol. 29, No. 7, March 31, 1969

              Some answers to the 7 4 7 question'
No other airline has been, and will be, so closely associated with the Boeing 747 as Pan Am. Because of the airline’s key role in the development and introduction of the 747s, Pan Am has been asked many questions about the aircraft itself, about the philosophy behind it, about the problems and benefits that this advance in commercial aviation brings with it. And few men are as well-equipped to reply to those questions as Harold E. Gray, Pan Am’s chairman and chief executive officer. Mr. Gray joined Pan Am in 1929 as a pilot. He has helped make aviation history— and he is still helping to make aviation history. In an address before the Aviation/Space Writers Association in Washington, D.C., on March 12, Mr. Gray touched upon Pan Am’s role in aviation development and then turned his attention to the clouds of questions through which the 747 is proceeding toward its introduction — by Pan Am— to the commercial airways later this year. Here are Mr. Gray’s replies. “The ability of an airlin e to influ­ ence progress is related to scale. In the early ’30s the project of g ettin g a superior airplane like the S-40 de­ veloped required a com m itm ent by Pan Am of only $416,000. “In 1955, a com m itm ent fo r 45 a ir ­ c ra ft a t a cost to Pan Am of $269 m illion—I guess it is the biggest or­ der th a t had ever been m ade in the airline business and m any oth er b u si­ nesses— launched us into the je t age. I tru ly believe if this launching proc­ ess had not been undertaken a t th a t tim e by Pan A m erican, the advent of the je t age would have been de­ layed by a t least five years. “In 1966, the price w ent up even more. It took a $1.5 billion commit­ m ent to The Boeing Company to launch the 747 era. The price of progress in aviation really goes up. “The U.S. policy w hich perm itted Pan A m erican—I use the word “p er­ m itted ” in tentionally—to become a strong and im portant c a rrie r in world aviation, th is in com bination w ith the g re at U.S. free en terp rise com­ petitive system fo r m an u factu rin g airplanes, has indeed been a fo rtu n ­ ate one. “If th is com bination had not ex­ isted, and if BOAC, fo r example, had been the dom inant c a rrie r in in tern atio n al a ir tran sp o rtatio n , it is quite possible th a t the w orld’s airw ays would today be served pri(Continued on Page 6.)

Volume 29

March 31, 1969

Number 7

Request authority to serve New England on Atlantic routes
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pan Am has requested au th o rity to serve H artfo rd , Conn, and Springfield, Mass., s ta rtin g th is summer, on its tra n s a tla n tic service to Europe. In papers filed w ith the Civil Aero­ n au tics Board, Pan Am said th a t its plan w o u ld : • Provide some 2,870,000 Connecti­ cut and M assachusetts passengers w ith improved a ir service to Europe. • R epresent a positive step to ease the congestion a t Kennedy In te rn a ­ tional A irp o rt in New York City. • Benefit the U.S. balance of pay­ m ents account by some $1.6 million annually. Pan Am said th a t it would operate daily H artford-B oston-London serv­ ice d u rin g the sum m er and twiceweekly flights between the same points d u rin g the w inter, using B rad ­ ley In tern atio n al A irp o rt a t W indsor Locks n ea r H artfo rd . At London, passengers can link up w ith Pan Am’s round-the-w orld and E uropean services. “The H artfo rd /S p rin g field d istrict and the su rro u n d in g areas of Con­ n ecticu t and W estern M assachusetts are w ithout adequate th ro u g h service to E urope,” Pan Am noted in its re­ quest. “As a result, m ost residents (Continued on Page 10.)

CARGO GROWTH. Chart illustrates how air freight has climbed for Pan Am from 100 million cargo-ton miles in 1958 to over 700 million cargo-miles in 1968. What was once

an air express service for packages has now become an important distribution method for international business. See story by Vice-President James Montgomery on Page 12.

Tapping the mass A tlantic market
AMSTERDAM— A th ree -p art program to tap a combined U.S. and E uropean m ass travel m arket was offered by Pan Am P resid en t N ajeeb H alaby in a m ajor address to the European Travel Com­ m ission here on M arch 13. Mr. H alaby urged the creation of a financially beefed up U nited S tates Travel Service to coor­ dinate all U.S. governm ent activities pertain in g to to u rism ; a non-profit corporation supported by public fu n d in g to act as the semi-official arm of the USTS; and the form ation of regional groups in the U nited S tates to spur tourism to specific areas of the country. He also called fo r an effort by E uropeans to erase natio n al boundaries, as fa r as tourism is concerned, creatin g a m ass m arket out of the 21 separate, n ational m arkets on th a t continent. “The A tlan tic community still rep resen ts the biggest, the m ost profitable chunk of the w orld’s trav el business,” Mr. H alaby said. “And it’s going to keep on th a t way. Some 80 per cent of all in te r­ national to u rists and th e ir expenditures come from the U nited States, C anada and the 10 E u­ ropean T ravel Commission countries. “You know w hat a cataly st this 362-passenger plane (the 747) can be as a m eans to stim ulate travel . . . The 747 is, a fte r all, a g ian t step fo r­ w ard to m eet our in d u stry ’s im mediate fu tu re — the changing and expanding environm ent for travel. “I use the word environm ent,” he continued, “not to m easure a physical relationship but an economic one. If we attem pt to m atch our re ­ sources to fit our opportunities, we will have come to grips w ith our p a rtic u la r environm ent. “Let us stress th a t the m ass m arket we seek is already there. It ju s t needs to be tapped— and the tim e is ripe fo r new m ethods of prom oting and selling on both sides of the A tlantic, by industry and by governm ents. “ F irst, we have to face a few facts squarely. In the sum m er of 1970, Pan Am’s 747s will have added a 45 per cent seatin g capacity to our N orth A tlantic routes, over and above w h at we would norm ally offer w ith our 707s. And, by the sum m er of 1971, to tallin g up not only ours b u t the 747s of our w orthy com petitors, world airlin es will have room fo r 30 m illion more passengers than the cu rren t 150 million flying in tern atio n ally today. “Can we fill these se a ts? ” Mr. Halaby asked. “I believe the potential custom ers are w aiting to be tugged into them ,” he said. “We estim ate th a t some 25 million A m ericans have the leisure money to cross the A tlantic, while 18 million E u­ ropeans have both the time and the money to do the same. (Continued on Page 7.)