Evening star., 1947-10-04


About two weeks ago, Col. Lawrence Douthit
arrived to take over the command and American
military personnel now numbers about 200.
Meanwhile, there was no obtainable informa-
tion here as to whether the United States Gov
ernment contemplates asking an extension OF
its occupancy agreement on the airfield, al
though there is universal appreciation of Its
strategic value in event of another war. Com
pletion of the training program is expected by
the release date of March, 1949
Plane Traffic Increases.
AS for the air traffic here, the September
load hit 400 planes and the pace has shown
steady increase through the recent months.
Largest user perhaps from the standpoint
of numbers of aircraft is the Arabian American
Oil Co., wholly United States owned concern
which holds the valued concession on oil rights
in Saudi Arabia. The company has fleet OF
planes ranging in size from two-passenger
models, through small transport craft, DC-3
ships and one de luxe passenger DC-4 the
Flying CameD which makes two round trips
a month between Dhahran and New York
A second DC-4 for cargo transport has recently
been purchased by the company and is expected
in Arabia in the near future.
Most interesting is Saudi Arab Airline
which began operations last year between
Dhahran, the capital city of Riyadh near the
center of the desert country, the Red Sea port
of Jidda and several other major population
centers. This line also makes scheduled nights
to Cairo The Saudi line is operated under
contract by Trans World Airline with American
pilots but with Arab coplots and radio opera
tors. A feet of DC-3 aircraft was purchased
from the United States Government for use
in this service.
Heaviest passenger traffic in Dhahran, both
terminating and transient, is handled by TWA
which makes this airport a scheduled stop on
its service between the United States and India
Three passenger flights and one cargo fight
are scheduled each way each week in DC-4 air.
craft two originating in New York and two IN
Washington. Bombay is the Indian terminal
Temporarily, during improvement OF the
Bahren Airport, BDAC (British) and kim
Dutch) are making fuel stops at Dhahran
but are not loading or dischargng passengers
here.
By terms of construction of the airport the
Saudi government may grant landing rights TO
any nationality or airline it pleases, subject
only to the condition that such operations must
not interfere with the United States military
needs. Since these are only nominal at pres
ent and the field Is adequate for much greater
traffic than 1t now takes there could easily be
great expansion in the load flow. There has
been no indication, however, that the Saudi
government has any particular desire to open
either their airport or their country to foreign
representations other than American.
Pending assumption of airport control by
the American-trained Arab administration, the
operation is being divided among the three
United States agencies most concerned The
control tower and message center Is under
direct operation Of the United States Air Force
complement Maintenance of aircraft and most
of the passenger handling is done by TWA
staff and servicing of the planes with gasoline
and oil is being done by an ARAMCO crew.
Passport control and customs functions are
carried out by Saudi government personnel.
Other airfields of the country are still little
more than natural desert strips with skeleton
administration by TWA contract personnel
working for the Saudi Arabia Airline.
The whole, however, represents swift ad-
vance from the early war years when the land
ing of an airplane at any point within the
country involved rather long and delicate dip
lomatic negotiations-and from IA years ago
when there probably was not single automo-
bile between the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf