AVIATION: At Last: a Policy

The U.S. last week finally laid down, for the world to see, its postwar international air policy. The policy: regulated competition on international routes, instead of a chosen instrument. Without waiting any longer for Congress to act, President Truman approved the choice of the Civil Aeronautics Board for airlines to fly the Atlantic. As expected (TIME, July 9), the routes were granted to Pan American Airways, Transcontinental & Western Air, and American Export Airlines; American Airlines got permission to buy control of American Export Airlines.

CAB extended Pan Am’s present route to London, via Bermuda, through Europe and the Near East to Calcutta. American Export, which now flies to Foynes, Ireland, and Lisbon, was given two north Atlantic routes and will fly all the way to Moscow. T.W.A. was also given two routes, one via Newfoundland and Foynes to Bombay, the other via Lisbon and Rome to Cairo.

As terminal ports in the U.S., CAB designated New York, Boston. Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago and Detroit. (Baltimore was highly indignant because it was passed over.)

Two days later, the airlines got another piece of good news. The U.S. Army announced that it will release twenty 40-passenger four-motored planes (DC-4s) for commercial transatlantic flying “late in the summer or early fall.” By then, the airlines hope that the State Department will clear their landing rights and they will be ready to fly the routes.

On fares, the airlines were mum. But not until they can put into operation their high-speed, deluxe planes now on order, such as Lockheed’s Constitution, is there much chance that they will get fares somewhere near the dream rates—$100-$150 one way — which the airlines have been glibly quoting.