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38     NATIONAL AVIATION GOALS—PROJECT HORIZON
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Direct Federal support to local service carriers and helicopter operators has represented a substantial amount. Efforts must be made to continue to reduce this reliance on subsidy.

There is no single simple solution to the increasing requirements for subsidy by the local service airlines. To suggest any formula applicable to all is to fall into the trap of assuming that their problems are identical or even universally similar merely because they all come under one classification for descriptive and reporting purposes. There are similarities, of course. They service the small cities of the country. They suffer the economic disadvantage of operating short-haul segments. Their progress has been hampered by the inability to develop an economic and efficient short-haul air vehicle.

But their points of difference are just as obvious. Some operate in the more populous parts of the United States. Some essentially continue to feed their business to trunks, with the majority of their revenues related to interline operations. A few enjoy the advantage of shuttling commuters between traffic centers of some magnitude. Others will continue to have to serve sparsely populated and isolated areas of the country.

Helicopter and/or other V/STOL services hold great promise. Their role in transportation is being emphasized by changes in travel patterns brought about by the operation of jets.

The jets are creating a growing need for major airport centers situated at some distance from heavily populated areas. There is a concomitant need for low-cost, efficient methods of transporting passengers from and to the major jetports, and from and to local points of origin and destination over relatively short distances.

This is a logical and probably development from existing helicopter services. In the meanwhile, valuable experience is being gained in the technical and operational problems of maintaining regular scheduled services at relatively high utilization rates.

Scheduled operations by all-cargo carriers thus far have received no "mail pay" subsidy support. These operations have not yet proven demonstrably economic. Several all-cargo carriers have withdrawn from scheduled commercial services and the others require substantial