Aeronautics: P.A.A. to Alaska

P. A. A. to Alaska

Most ambitious air transport system in the U. S. is Pan American Airways. Between it and the major domestic airlines, all of which are Pan American shareholders, is a tacit agreement that Pan American shall operate outside the U. S. proper, that none of the other lines shall compete with it. In its imperialistic spread Pan American’s horizons are limited only by international permission and good business. Already Pan American has a network of lines south from Miami and Texas, roping the Caribbean and South America. Few weeks ago Transamerican Airlines bowed itself out of the North Atlantic field, leaving P. A. A. to work out its projected air passage to Europe via Greenland and Iceland. Last week P. A. A. acquired another strategic outpost—Alaskan Airways, comprising 2,500 mi. of lines. The future was too obscure to be read in detail but any observer could make plausible guesses merely on the strength of Capt. Wolfgang von Gronau’s recent predictions of airplane service between Europe and the Orient via the Northern Passage, Canada, northern U. S., the Pacific Coast, the Kuriles (TIME, Aug. 8). Alaskan Airways was the property of potent Aviation Corp. (American Airways holding company) which holds a 12% interest in P. A. A. It was organized in 1929 by the late Carl Ben Eielson, father of aviation in Alaska. While it enjoyed a romantic, lusty existence in a land where the airplane is an immeasurable boon, Alaskan Airways never made money. Prime reasons were Avco’s lack of facility for remote control of operations; and Alaskan Airways’ unprofitable mail contracts. These are not true airmail contracts but “star routes”* won from the dogsled contractors by underbidding. The contractor is required only to carry the mail, receives no extra compensation for flying it. (A 3¢ stamp on a letter is sufficient.) Thus, on Alaskan Airways’ eight “star” routes between the Seward Peninsula, the Yukon and above the Arctic Circle, a pilot must land at every prospector’s shack where a letter is to be delivered, or where a signal is displayed that a letter is to be picked up. On the 200-mi. route between Tanana and Ruby, planes make as many as 26 stops. For mail service last year Alaskan Airways collected $10,340 from the Government. To take over the Alaskan operation, P. A. A. organized Pacific Alaska Airways Inc. Purchase price was “somewhere between $100,000 and $150,000.”

*Derived from early postoffice practice of designating by asterisks, in reports and correspondence, links open to bids.