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The international air transport situation today is substantially different from that which prevailed 15 years ago. Across the Atlantic to Europe, foreign competition has increased so that, on the whole, a high standard of service would undoubtedly be available without any competition between U.S. carriers.

The quality and quantity of foreign competition in the Pacific and Latin America has not yet reached a level comparable to that attained for European travel, but it is steadily improving. This, the argument originally made -- that we needed inter U.S. carrier competition because of inadequate foreign competition -- is gradually losing much of its force. It is true that without inter-U.S. carrier competition new equipment might not be adopted as swiftly, that reduced fare services might not be introduced as soon, or that capacity (especially in peak periods) might not be as abundant. But there is no doubt that other countries would continue to provide effective air links between the U.S. and many of the important centers of the world, with or without inter-U.S. carrier competition. 

This raises the question of what we are now, and prospectively should be, trying to accomplish with our international civil aviation policy. If U.S. carriers are no longer essential for U.S. travelers to get abroad, what is it that we seek?

In the first instance, U.S. carriers (and probably some measure of inter-U.S. carrier competition) are, as already noted, still necessary for the maintenance of high quality service to some parts of the world. This is true, and will continue for some years to come to be true, in some parts of Latin America where foreign competition is still in the developmental stage. In other areas, the spur of inter-U.S. carrier competition in the pricing, capacity and sales fields appears to be a continuing factor in enlarging the market for international air travel and in making it available

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