SKIES OPENED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21945, 13 February 1946, Page 5

SKIES OPENED

CIVIL AIRJSERVICES BRITISM-U.S. PACT MODEL FOR THE WORLD USE OF MILITARY BASES (9 a.m.) BERMUDA, Feb. 12. Britain ancl the United States have announced the completion of an aviation agreement, opening their skies to the commerce of the two countries, says the Associated Press correspondent. A joint press statement outlining the terms of the pact, said the deliberate trend of these principles is to encourage the use of air transport and also stimulate air travel at economic rates. The agreement embraces the following conditions: (1) Permits the air lines of both countries to pick up passengers destined for a third country (the so-called “fifth freedom,” which makes it possible to keep aircraft loaded to a profitable level along the entire route). (2) Establishes a rate-determination policy with inter-governmental action to avoid rate wars and profiteering. (3) Outlines a world pattern of routes by which each country will fly over the other’s territory. (4) Provides a system of regular consultation on all civil air problems between British and the United States, a step which is described by both sides as the chief feature emerging from the conferenc. (5) Arranges that the provisional international aviation conference at Montreal shall be asked to give an advisory opinion when a dispute cannot be settled through bilateral consultations. The 1937 British-American air agreement also remains in force providing two-round trips weekly between Britain and the United States. The agreement does not fix a time limit, but it may be terminated by one year’s notice. The termination, however, would not affect United States air lines’ traffic rights at leased military bases.

Outline of Conditions The agreement also opens military air bases to civil use, contingent on satisfactory agreements with Newfoundland and Canada. The American air bases at Bermuda, Antigua, Santa Lucia and British Guiana would be opened for regular civilian use. The American air bases at Trinidad and Jamaica may be used as bad weather alternatives. Some details of the agreement on bases remain unsettled, but the principles have been agreed upon. The New York Times correspondent says that tjie only restrictive measure is the provision for a final governmental review of rates. On the other hand, there is no provision for restriction on the amount of service which one country may offer in the other’s territory. Both side agreed to unexpectedly the liberal application of the “fifth freedom.” The chief of the British delegation, Sir Henry Self, and the chief of the American delegation, Mr G. P. Baker, declared that the agreeement constitutes a model on which the rest of the world may well base the settlement of other complicated air commerce relationships. The agreement lists seven routes for British air lines and 13 for American. The British routes include terminals at New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Miami, West Palm Beach, New Orleans and San Francisco.