Pan Am clipper, Vol. 3, No. 5, May 1977

              More SPs
on order
Pan Am has ordered two more long-range 747SPs—the seventh and eighth to join the fleet— scheduled for delivery next year.
In addition, another standard 747 passenger aircraft has been converted into an all-freighter, thus bringing to four the number of widebodied jumbos flying Pan Am’s cargo routes.
Addition of the two new SPs will be partially financed by the public offering of $53 million worth of secured equipment certificates.
Net proceeds from the sale of each of the two series of IV/2 percent certificates will be used to pay a portion of the purchase price of the two new Boeing 747SP aircraft. The two aircraft will be leased to Pan Am. Each series of certificates will be secured by one of the aircraft and Pan Am’s obli-
SUMMER RUSH IS ON as April 24 ushered in the start of new flights and added schedules for the peak season. Highlights: New York-Copenhagen 707 service now daily, with 747SP flights starting June 8; daily San Francisco-London 747 nonstop service; daily London-Stockholm service with connections in London to and from all principal transatlantic flights; and daily Detroit-Boston-London service.
Seven years
The authority is for a seven-year period and includes Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. Authority at Okinawa and Taiwan will be in effect until March 2, 1978, the date when the Pan Am-Trans World Airlines route exchange is scheduled to expire.
The only new service proposed by Pan Am which was not granted was Korea.
Tiger service renewed
gâtions to make rental payments.
At present the company has in service 28 standard 747 passenger models, five SPs, three converted 747 freighters and one nose-loading 747 freighter.
Pan Am will take delivery on a sixth SP this month. On May 20, the 50th anniversary of Charles Lindbergh’s historic solo New York-Paris flight, the new SP will be christened “Clipper Lindbergh” by Anne Morrow Lindbergh in New York.
Bob Lucas, automotive mechanic-JFK, shows off what he calls his “Pan Am history in jewelry”, a collection of Pan Am insignia that goes back 41 years. Bob’s father-in-law, with the company for 25 years, gave Bob the first pin for his collection, his own mechanics’ pin worn when he was working in Brownsville, Texas, in 1936.
Formally, the proceeding is known as the Flying Tiger Transpacific Renewal Case. The Board, however, folded Pan Am’s request for new service into the proceeding. Tiger’s present Pacific all-cargo authority was renewed for a seven-year period and the carrier, over Pan Am’s objections, was also awarded new allcargo authority at Anchorage, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. Pan Am contended that adding Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia to Tiger’s authority would result in two carriers being in markets which could not support such service. CAB ruled otherwise.
There is no date by which President Carter must rule on the CAB decision.
New cargo routes urged
The Civil Aeronautics Board has sent to President Carter a decision granting Pan Am new all-cargo authority between Chicago, Detroit and Seattle and a number of Asian points.
The new service would increase company revenues by between $5 million and $10 million
a year, according to CAB estimates.
In proposing the new authority, Pan Am said service would permit the integration of transatlantic and transpacific cargo flights.
The CAB agreed. In its ruling it said, “We find the carrier’s potential to integrate its Atlantic and Pacific operations, coupled with an ability to serve numerous domestic and foreign customers with multinational business, will provide Pan Am with an opportunity to develop new forms of service previously not available to shippers.”
Pan Am, domestic lines split over noise issue
by Merle W. Richman
The complex issue of how airlines will secure financing to meet new federal government noise standards has placed Pan Am at loggerheads with the domestic industry. The issue is currently the subject of legislative hearings before the Congress.
The government mandate for reduced aircraft noise requires carriers to meet new low-noise standards by 1985. Pan Am’s entire 747 fleet already meets the new noise standards. The company must, however, either replace its 707 fleet with aircraft meeting the new standards, retrofit them or replace existing engines.
“Since 1973, one of our corporate objectives has been to increase the utilization of our 747 fleet ... and gradually phase out our 707s in order to reduce the noise problem and take advantage of the efficiency improvements produced by the 747s,” William Waltrip, Executive Vice President-Operations, told the
If you could talk to Congress, what would you like to say? The Pan Am Employee Awareness Committee has been asked to testify at regulatory reform hearings being held this month by Chairman Glenn Anderson’s House Aviation Subcommittee. Awareness wants to hear your suggestions for its presentation before the U.S. Congress. See “Letters to the Editor,” page 4.
House Aviation Subcommittee during recent hearings.
The issue focuses on how funds will be secured to be used in achieving the new standards. To meet the new criteria, carriers have the option of retrofiting existing airplanes to make them quieter, replacing old engines with new engines meeting the standards, or purchasing new aircraft.
Pan Am position
The Pan Am position, as outlined by Waltrip before the House hearings, is that both U.S. and foreign flag carriers should be permitted to assess international passengers a $2 departure tax, with the monies collected placed in a fund for retrofit and replacement purposes. In addition to the departure tax on international passengers, Pan Am and domestic carriers would impose a 2 percent surcharge on domestic operations, with these monies also being placed in the fund.
At Clipper presstime, the Civil Aeronautics Board voted to defer any further action on the Transatlantic Route Case until the outcome of the V.S.-U. K. bilateral dispute is known. The Board said it expected the bilateral situation to be clarified by sometime this summer.
Under Subcommittee Chairman Glenn Anderson’s bill (HR4539), if an airline decided to retrofit, it would tap the fund to pay 75 percent of the retrofit costs. If it elected to replace engines, it would be permitted to tap the fund for 150 percent of what the retrofit cost would have been. And, if it determined to purchase new aircraft meeting noise standards, 250 percent of the retrofit cost would be available to the carrier.
The issue becomes thorny, however, over what is to be done with monies collected and how the retrofit/replacement financing program is to be allocated. Simply stated. Pan Am believes that all monies collected should, in effect, be placed in a central fund to be drawn upon by all carriers. But domestic carriers, in a financing program put forth by the Air Transport Association, would have the monies collected by each individual carrier, kept and spent by that carrier for its own purposes.
“Pan Am cannot possibly accept
that principle,” Waltrip told the committee. Noting that Pan Am’s domestic operations are “insignificant” as compared with domestic carriers, Waltrip pointed out that, even when monies collected from the company’s domestic operations are supplemented by the $2 international departure tax, the aggregate collections are small in comparison with other carriers.
“If Pan Am were to be restricted in its expenditures for replacement continued on page 3
Miami to Madrid nonstops requested
Pan Am has filed a motion with the Civil Aeronautics Board ask-king for authority to provide nonstop service between Miami and Madrid.
If authority is granted, nonstop flights to the Spanish capital would be implemented in time for the peak summer season, possibly as early as May.
Nonstop flights would begin on a once-weekly basis departing from Miami on Saturdays at 5 p.m. Return flights from Madrid would arrive the following day at 9:45 p.m.
Service would be operated with 707 equipment.
Pan Am will continue to operate four additional weekly flights to Madrid with a stopover in San Juan.
At the same time. Pan Am asked the Board for authority to suspend service to Rome on the Miami-San Juan-Madrid-Rome flight for a two-year period starting April 24. Pan Am said that service to Rome over the mid-Atlantic routing resulted in operating losses of $304,000 for the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 1976.