Henderson daily dispatch., 1940-08-15
In Re: Air Lines

Interesting statistics have been
prepared to buttreSS the appeal OF
the PennSylvania-Central Air Lines
Corporation for permit to operate
mail and passenger planes between
Norfolk. .A>heville. Knoxville and
Cincinnati. The only objection
raised to the application by the
examiners of the Civil AeronauticS
Authority has been that prospects
for patronage do not justify the I'M
dertakiug. and one of the best an
<w-erS to that contention is the rec
ord that has been made by other
lines.
We have not read the findings of
the examiners. but those who have
say that the first 25 pages Of their
report is such fine build-up in
favor of the line that it was expected
the conclusion would be favorable.
and that the adverse recommended
ton of page 26 came as Il shock.
1t is not to be expected that the
first days operation Of a service
OF this kind will be profitable. a
reasonable time will be necessary
for publiczing the new mode Of
travel. and most like undertakings
have shown that travel and mail
have so increased as to require more
frequent schedules.
A case in point is the line between
Norfolk and Washington, which was
established in April. 1888. At the
outset one round trip daily was I'M
dertaken. BY September, 1899. it
was found necessary to change the
schedule to two round trips day,
and business Immediately showed Il
SizeIblc increase. In May this year
the line put on 21-pasSenger planes,
and another increase resulted.
While the service was offering
only one round trip daily. the great
est number of passengers in any one
month was 592 The first month
under the two round trips daily
schedule. 678 revenue passengers
were carried. and in April this year
the number has jumped to TO.
When the new and larger planes
were put into service, the number
/ jumped to 852 the first month. In
June, 1929 pas engers were carried
| and in July this year there were
1915. For the first seven months of
! 1910 d. rXpr' IS shipments had al
ready 600, the total for the en-
tire year 1899
! This achievement was on the Nor
! folk aShington line. which is OPP
Grated by the same concern that is
applying for the Norfolk-KnOXville-
! Cincir'.a'i permit. There is no
! guarantee. of course, of Il duplCa-
ton over the proposed route, but
there is every reason to expect a
profitable business, to say nothing
Of the convenience and development
that could be expected in the terri
tory served, which today is without
air service. At any rate, as this
newspaper has before observed, it
will cost the government nothing for
the line to be inaugurated by this
private agency, and if an adequate
trial proved the unWiSdom of the I'M
dertaking, it certainly could be dis
continued.
We cannot escape the belief that
the stand taken by the Civil Aero
nautcS Authority is an arbitrary one,
wholly without basis in fact, and
entirely in keeping with bureaucratic
! custom of showing the extent of
power and control over private bust
ness. There can be no legitimate OBJ
lection to Federal regulation of such
interstate services, but there is no
wisdom or logic in deliberately
blocking project that offers as
much to the region concerned as this
one does.
! For our own part. we have no ak
to grind. The line would not even