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July 21, 1957

CONFIDENTIAL

Dear Tubby:

Considering that today is my Birthday and also that Edith is in the mood to do a little typing, I though it might be a good time to give you a brief rundown on the airline situation in Southern California.

As you know, Pan American was given a certificate last week to operate between LA and any country in Europe via the Polar Route.  They can also give the same service from San Francisco and Seattle.  TWA was granted the same rights with the exception of Seattle which places three operators, PAA, TWA and SAS, in competition over this route from LAX.  It has also been confirmed that LUFFHANSA will be in operation between LA and Europe early next year and BOAC will also fly this route at some future date.  I think you will agree that somebody is bound to go broke flying the Polar Route and I hope that it is not PAA.

The battle is now on with WAL and they are out to use every means, ethical or not, that will give them a profit on the LA-MEX run.  You may be interested in the following incidents that have happened in the last ten days, which concerned two passengers - a Japanese and a Frenchman, who traveled on Western from SF to LA but had ticked from LA to MEX on CMA.  Fortunately PAA have ticked representatives on duty at all times who can speak nine languages including Japanese and French.  In these cases the WAL stewardess upon finding that the Japanese and Frenchman spoke very little English sold them on the idea of taking WAL to Mexico instead of CMA.  Upon arrival in LA, a WAL ticket supervisor brought these gentlemen to our counter and told our people that the passengers wanted to change their tickets to WAL.  When our boys asked them in their own language whether they actually wanted to ride on WAL instead of CMA, they said "DEFINITTLY NO".

Most of our ticket counter employees have been with PAA for many years and are extremely loyal to CMA.  As you know, during the past two years I have been reluctant to give any vacation passes to our station employees, however I think that with the tough competition and in view of the new service contract I hope you will agree that I should ease up on the pass restrictions for LAX station employees who contact the public.  Therefore, unless you advise me to the contrary, I will let some of our older employees have a pass for vacation, during slack periods and when seats are available.  Will you please advise Chico to this effect as I would not have him think that I am trying to set policies which affect his business.