WASHINGTON NEWS-LETTER
By MARY LEE COUNCIL
Secretary to E. L. (Bob) Bartlett, Alaska’s Delegate to Congress
Report on Non-Scheduled Airline*
The Senate Small Business
Committee declared this week
that the Civil Aeronautics Board
“should act promptly to relieve
the hardships it is imposing on
Alaska through its restriction il
flights from the United States.’
Special reference was made tc
Alaska in the long-awaited report
of the committee studying the
role of the non-scheduled airlines
in the United States. The report
stated that the CAB “should rec
ognize the special need for cargo
transportation to Alaska and the
lack of alternative forms of low
cost passenger service.”
In recommending immediate
enactment of legislation to sep
arate airline subsidies in the Uni
ted States from compensation for
the cost of carrying airmail, the
committee report noted: “Since
the conclusion of your commit
tee’s hearings, the Civil Aeronau
tics Board has granted to Pacific
Northern Airlines and Alaska Air
lines, certificates of public con
venience and necessity authoriz
ing them to engage in air trans
portation between major points
in Alaska on the one hand and
Seattle, Washington, and Port
land, Oregon, on the other. Heavy
subsidies are involved in both oi
these awards. The CAB made the
grants despite the applications of
the irregulars to carry the mail
without charge and to operate
without subsidies.”
The hearings were brought
about following issuance of reg
ulations by the CAB restricting
the operation of the large irreg
ular air carriers to three round
trip flights monthly over major
traffic routes and eight flights
monthly between all other points.
The report pointed out that the
need for a basic policy calls for
the CAB to “reassess its whole ap
proach toward air transportation
. The operation of the non
scheduled air carriers had dem
onstrated that there is strong pub
lic demand for cheap air transpor
tation on a vastly expanded basis.
Far from reaching a saturation
point, air-coach service apparent
ly has hardly scratched the sur
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j face of the potential market. . .
! From the date of its creation in
1938 until 1946 the Board was
largely concerned with the pro
tection and development of an
existing industry. In 1946. with
the development of the non
scheduled air carriers, a new type
of operation was introduced,
v. hich had a shattering effect on
the concept that air travel must
necessarily be an elite type of
luxury. The CAB during this re
cent period has been reluctant
to recognize and protect the new
enterprises, preferring to cling to
the traditional position that
American aviation transportation
must perforce remain the exclu
sive franchise of the certified
carriers.”
The committee stated it found
no factual basis for the certified
airlines’ charge that the non
scheduled operators “skin the
cream” off the air transportation
business, pointing out that the
non-scheduled airlines have de
veloped a wholly new market in
passenger and freight transpor
tation. In this connection, the
committee declared it “was very
interested in the impact of air
transportation on Alaska.” Testi
mony disclosed, the report said,
that the “non-skeds” had reduced
the cost of air freight to Alaska
from 68 eents a pound to 15 cents.
Governor Protests
Miss Sally Carrighar, author of
Nome, and Governor Ernest Gru
ening testified before the com
mittee when hearings were under
way earlier this year. “Your com
mittee,” the report stated, “was
alarmed by the testimony of the
Honorable Ernest Gruening, Gov
ernor of Alaska, on the great
i
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hardship the new regulation will
work on his Territory by restrict
ing traffic between the United
States and Alaska. He stated:
“ ‘Alaska with its vast dis
tances was a natural place for the
development of air transporta
tion. In many communities it was
the only way to get around. .
All was going well until v.e rar
into an absentee bureaucracy
that, for reasons of its own which
we have not been able to pene
trate, began to clamp down or
this initiative and enterprise and
has in consequence greatly re
tarded the normal deveiopmem
of Alaska. . . I have no knowledge
as to whether the policies of the
CAB within the 48 States are de
sirable or good but I know ir
Alaska they have been disas
trous. . .
“ ‘The policies of the CAE
through the years have been dia
metrically opposed to the policies
of this administration, which are
Kinley scientific expedition
to develop Alaska, to increase its
population, to make it in that fai
northern part of the world and
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of the American way of life. . .
A Territory is the creature of
Congress. Congress tomorrow
could, if it wishes, abolish our
territorial form of government,
or it could do anything it wants.
Having that power, it has, we
feel, a corresponding responsibil
ity to diminish such discrimina
tions by bureaus when they exist,
and this in my judgment has been
one of the most flagrant cases. .” ’
Committee Recommendations
In making its recommendations,
the report said. “The committee
feels that the two—the certified
carriers and the ‘nonskeds’—can
prosper together, each developing
its own segment of the air trans
portation industry.”
The committee recommended
that the CAB take the following
steps immediately:
Continued on page 13
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