Evening star., 1948-10-17

age, the number IN group, tne
week, the time of day, number OF
trips, which airline and what type
of airplane.
All that, of course, is in addition
to whether 1t is q round trip and
whether you sit up or take q berth.
Agreed on One Tariff
The whole mess has been cooked
up since late August, when the Civil
Aeronautics Board took the lead In
attempting to keep air fares uniform
as they had been for eight years.
When one big airline refused to
go slons the situation came apart
rapidly. Competition Is forcing 1t
together again, but 1t Is still a mess.
Before the Civil Aeronautics Act
of 1898 became law, airlines kept
their own tariffs" The law re-
quired these tariffs, or price sched-
ules, to be filed with the Govern
ment, providing q central reference
which had not previously existed.
However, there were Is different
tariffs, totaling some 1.500 pages.
This was changed in 1910. The
airlines agreed to file single tarif1
under the name Of M. r. Redfern
Of the Air Transport Association,
which represents scheduled airlines.
Today the one tariff contains 16
pages of rules and, until recently,
25s pages of fares.
Until last month the basic fare
was about 5l2 cents mile, with
O 10 per cent surcharge OIL so-called
"luxury" planes. The exceptions in
yolved only few small routes which
had no competition.
Dropped Extra Fare on DC-6
With financial disaster facing
them despite heroic achievements in
reducing costs and increasing ef-
ficiency, airline leaders generally
favored fare increases. C. r. Smith
of American, the largest domestic
operator, would 60 only part way
He favored raising the basic fare to
6 cents a mile and dropping the sur
charge. He argued that going over
6 cents would keep too many travel
ers off the airways.
The CAB favored a straight in
crease, extra fare and all. So did the
four other airlines in the big five"
class-United, Eastern, TWA and
Northwest.
All except Eastern, which was
waiting for its small competitor, Ma
tional, did raise basic fares. Some OF
the smaller lines also raised, but
National, Delta, Braniff, Colonial
and Northwest held out. Capital
Airlines went up on all except a
few highly competitive routes, such
as Washington Chicago, New York
Detroit and Chicago-Detroit.
About six weeks after the initial
raises, three of the holdouts-East-
ern, Delta and Northeastern into
line.
American dropped the extra fare
On DC-6s. United retained 1t for a
while, then went along with Amer
lean. TWA and Eastern still have
the extra fare on their Constella-
tions.
United announced per cent
reduction for round trips. American
followed quickly. BY now the round
trip bargain Is general.
"Promotional" fares have added
complications.
Group Plan Adopted
American started family plan.
reminiscent Of the days when wives
could ride free. The plan permits
a man to take his wife and children
under % for half fare on Mondays,
Tuesday and Wednesdays. Or a
mother may take her children at
half price on those days.
Northeast adopted the plan but
made 1t effective from Monday noon
to Friday noon. National, Pied
mont and Southwest also have
taken up the family" idea.
TWA countered that lure with
"group" plan whereby 10 or more
leaving on the same day can travel
for 80 per cent Of the one-way fare.
The departure day Is stretched to
II hours by one Interpretation Of
the tariff.
American, Southwest, Mid-Conti-
nent and Piedmont adopted the
group plan. The special fares will
expire next April 80.
After all this, TWA came in with
q family plan, too.
The commuter fare idea hatched
by Mid Continent Airlines set q rec
ord for peak excitement and short
life. For q while 1t looked like an
unofficial repeal Of the Is per cent
Federal transportation tax. But the
Internal Revenue Bureau recovered
itself in time to reverse the field and
keep the tax flowing.
Mid-Continent noted that the
transportation tax does not apply
to commuter fares. The Govern
ment tax boys were unable to say
why airline travellers couldn't be
commuters. They approved Mid
Continent plan to sell books Of six
or eight tickets without the tax.
The airlines leaped at the idea
Nine or 10 announced adoption OF
the proposal quickly because II
meant a Is per cent saving to the
customer ct no cost to the airline.
Capital Has a Scheme y
Then the Internal Revenue Bu-
reau said it would have to recon-
slider the whole thing at length.
However, one commuter fare is in
effect until next March 81. 1t Ii
on Nationals route between Miami
and Key West, Fla. The price was
cut from $715 to S. a trip in books
- ~{~ %tol, b.