Transport: Frozen Carriers

Laced though the U. S. is with airlines which serve every State but one,* there are still many places where a reorientation of routes would benefit both the public and the airline operators. Well aware of this are all lines and each important one has its own pet scheme to rectify the situation to its advantage. United Air Lines, which now flies across the U. S. through Cheyenne, would like to run a parallel route through Denver, which is served only by the north-south Wyoming

Air Service. American Airlines has applied to the Interstate Commerce Commission to establish flights from Detroit to Cincinnati and from Detroit to Indianapolis. Pennsylvania-Central has asked permission to inaugurate service between Pittsburgh and Buffalo. Transcontinental & Western Air wants to buy Braniff to get a north-south service to cross its transcontinental route, and Eastern Air covets Braniff’s line between Houston and Brownsville, Tex., in order to tie up with Pan American’s route in Mexico. Last week the chances of fulfilling most of these ambitions without overhauling the Air Mail Act of 1934 were reduced to zero by a reluctant I. C. C. decision.

San Francisco is served by only one airline, United, which flies in from New York and also operates up & down the coast from San Diego to Vancouver. TWA, which now flies from New York to Los Angeles, and once flew from there to San Francisco, has long wanted to start an off-line spur from Albuquerque to San Francisco. The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce backed the scheme, but United naturally opposed it. Under Section 15 of the Air Mail Act of 1934, the I. C. C. has power to authorize new lines, but. apparently may not permit a new service if it competes with an already established service. Some legalists claim that this prohibition is phrased ambiguously in the law. Nevertheless, the Commission last week regretfully refused TWA’s petition though it was admittedly in the “public interest, convenience and necessity.”

Said Commissioner McNanamy and two associates in a strong dissenting opinion: “The decision of the majority hews too closely to the letter of the law in disregard of its spirit and fails to recognize the practical aspects, with the result that the air mail carriers are frozen in their present positions regardless of the public need for additional service and their ability to furnish it. . . .”

*Delaware.