Evening star., 1939-06-18
Lines Ready
For Aerial
VacatiOniStS
Summer Finds
Service Geared
To Demand

Except for travel demands in con-
nection with the two world fairs,
for which most of the domestic
airlines have made extra prepara-
tions in the way of additional
schedules. American air transporta-
ton is prepared to take vacation
travel lin its stride"
Regular air travel has been grow
ing so rapidly month after month
that extra vacation travel, in pro-
portion, is much less of a problem
than in the past when travel was
more seasonable in character and
the summer flood was followed by
winter ebb.
The most significant feature of
the air transport development is that
It is almost entirely losing its sea-
sonal character and the gains in
passenger travel continue through
out the year. Aside from the extra
schedules into New York and San
Francisco from all parts of the
country. as result, there are few
purely vocational schedules planned
by the domestic airlines. Although
a greater volume of vacation travel
is anticipated than ever before, so
many new schedules already have
been added during the late winter
and spring months that this extra
vacation business is expected to be
absorbed as part of a continuing
growth.
II ~
Many of the airlines have doubled
or more than doubled the number
OF passenger seats available daily
by adding extra schedules or larger
airplanes. American Airlines, for
example, has more than doubled its
service between Washington and
New York and now operates seven
round trips daily and has increased
by one third its service between
Washington and Los Angeles. Penn
sylvania-Central Airlines has in
creased its passenger seating ca
pacity by more than 60 per cent
between Washington and Detroit.
not for vacation travel, but to meet
a continually growing demand for
basic new service.
The trend is indicated by the fact
that Washington Airport now ham
dles SO regularly scheduled air
transport arrivals and departures
daily-a new all-time record-in ad-
vance OF any great demand for
purely vacation travel. This means,
on a. basis of slightly more than 70
= per cent of all available seats oc-
cupled. that more than 1900 pas
sengers are entering or leaving
Washington Airport each "a hours.
Y X
There has been a large increase
during recent months in the number
Of women passengers travelling the
domestic alrllnes and an even larger
increase In the number of children,
the latter due largely to half fares
now In effect, for children under IL
years of age. More children are
travelling on the airlines unaccom-
panied due to the excellent pro-,
visions made by all the airlines for
their care. All airline stewardesses
are trained, registered nurses and
special kits for the care of chill
dren are part of their regular equip
ment.
Although most of the airlines are
taking the vacation travel In their
stride, there are some few special
vacation services and all-expense
tours planned. United Airlines has
announced a three-month extra one
day side trip to Yellowstone Ma
tional Park.
Alaska will be five days from
Washington and New York this sum-
mer as a result of combination
plane-sea-plane service announced
by United and Pan-American Air
ways, as against surface transport
time OF 18 days.
The airlines are prepared. with
existing schedules, to handle eX-
ceptionally heavy travel to the lead
Ing Western Fairgrounds, including
Colorado. Yellowstone, Glacier.
Rainier, Yosemite and Grand Can
yon National Parks, all of which
are overnight trips from the At
lantic Seaboard
Eastern Airlines, with its new
service to Brownsville, Tex, the
aerial gateway to Mexico and Cen
tral America, is prepared to handle
the increasing volume of vacation
travel to the picturesque southern
republics in cooperation with Pan
American.
There is lot more travel al
ready. but 1t is becoming increasing
ly difficult to break down the line
between vacation and business travel
and there is less and less need to
handle them as separate types of
business, it was explained by Her
bert D. Ford, local sales manager
for American Airlines. Whether
vacation travel or business travel.
however, the airlines are ready to
meet the demands for service as
never before"