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".......The Board is of the opinion that present financial difficulties will be surmounted as management addresses itself to the task of the efficient and economic operation of a stabilized air transport system, provided business depression does not undermine both national and international economies. There exists a vast potential demand for air transportation the service for which is dependent upon the achievement of lower costs and lower rates, greater dependability and regularity of service, and greater safety. In the attainment of these goals both industry and government have large responsibilities."

The air line pilots wish to close their statement to the President's Air Policy Commission by commenting briefly on this part of the statement of the Civil Aeronautics Board. Referring first to the matter of lower rates, the public has never demanded lower rates for air transportation and doesn't expect lower rates; nor is it asking for lower rates. What the traveling public does demand is to be able to travel from here to there and arrive all in one piece. In the past, rates have been lowered which left the public surprised and in a quandary as to why it was done. The air liners were loaded -- no available seats -- and yet rates come down. A short time later, the carriers pointed to red figures on their balance sheets. Off the record, the more frank air line officials will admit their financial troubles are of their own making -- the three-cent air line idea is an excellent example of wrong-way air line management. It doesn't make for good common sense.

GREATER DEPENDABILITY AND REGULARITY ARE A NECESSITY. Give the air line pilots the aids to flight, landing, and air navigation already developed and proved, which they have asked for, principally better field and approach lighting, and stop ignoring and pigeonholing their air safety recommendations, the principal one of which is to re-establish the independent Air Safety Board, and there will be greater dependability and regularity of service. Without these aids, greater dependability or regularity are beyond reach and there cannot be "a stabilized air transport system".

NOW, WE COME TO THE KEY TO THE SUCCESS AND NORMAL ADVANCEMENT OF THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY, AND THAT IS THE PART OF THE CIVIL AERONAUTICS BOARD STATEMENT "....... AND GREATER SAFETY". The only way that greater safety can be achieved on the air lines with any degree of certainty is to re-establish immediately the independent Air Safety Board and supplement this Board with a Bureau of Standards for Air Safety. Even with these two broad steps in the right direction, the air safety situation is hopelessly tangled and so deeply involved in a hodge-podge of confusion that it will take time -- from one to three years, even with an independent Air Safety Board and a Bureau of Standards for Air Safety, to show real lasting improvement. The point is now -- TODAY -- to take the first step in the right direction. Surely, we cannot afford to wait longer to take this effective step -- the placing into effect of the air safety recommendations of the men in the cockpits of our airplanes.