Communications and transit > Air transport co-operation committee : minutes of the first session : held at Geneva from July 8th to 12th, 1930

II
The first chapter made clear, by means of figures which showed both absolute and relative
values, the place that commercial air navigation had secured in the world. He cited a few examples.
During 1929—twentv years after Bleriot’s feat—over 48)000 passengers had crossed the
English Channel by air, while the goods imported or exported through Le Bourget aerodrome
represented Customs receipts of more than 500 million French francs, to which must be added
the 3,321 millions worth of gold imported by air.
Again, in 1929, the commercial aeroplanes and seaplanes of the seven chief air Powers had
covered 66 million kilometres —a distance equal to 1,650 times round the earth. Over the 200,000
kilometres of airways in the whole world, 620,000 passengers and 15,000 tons of freight were
transported in accordance with fixed time-tables.
These figures were striking. They were, however, still very small when compared with the
figures for longer established means of transport.
Aeroplanes were still an almost negligible quantity as regards the development of the world’s
resources. Still less had they made their influence felt, not merely in trade, but in the ordinary
man’s daily life. In the United States of America, there was a motor-car for every four inhabitants
and an aeroplane for every 12,000 ; in Europe, there was less than one aeroplane for every 100,000
inhabitants.
The reason was that aeroplanes were still very far from having accomplished all that was
expected of them. Neither their speed for commercial purposes, nor their regularity, safety, nor
working costs were as yet satisfactory. Chapter II sought to establish this.
Speed was clearly the aeroplane’s chief asset. It was, however, only secured through the
observance of such exacting technical conditions, and of technical principles of such a nature, that,
when sacrifices, such as public services require, were made in the interests of safety, the speed
of aeroplanes for practical commercial purposes was very different from their theoretical speed.
In the case of most European airways of less than 1,800 kilometres, there was not as yet any
advantage, if the time saved was the only consideration, in travelling by aeroplane over routes
for which there were excellent services of express trains, running both by day and night ; for, by
spending a night and a day in a comfortable Pullman car, the traveller reached his destination a.t
the same time as if he had gone by aeroplane, flying only by day. There were, of course, night air
services, but their safety was usually ensured at the cost of regularity. Except in the case of a
few short experimental routes, which had been opened over countries in which flying conditions
were easy and economic life highly organised — and in which such routes were consequently of
little value — a reasonable measure of safety in air traffic by night could not yet be guaranteed.
This being so, aeroplanes lost by night the ground that they gained by day. If the journey they
had to make were one of less than 800 or i,ooo*kilometres, it was quite clearly better for very busy
men — men whose time was precious — to spend the evening, night and early morning in travelling,
the time when aeroplanes offered them unsatisfactory services or no service at all. Where postal
and express goods traffic was concerned, the question was different and the Committee would deal
with it later but the general principle held—namely, that from the commercial point of view speed
was no consideration in itself, while the services rendered by speed were all-important.
The statistics of the regularity of air transport services were most impressive. They showed
between 90 and 99 per cent, or even 100 per cent, of journeys up to time. The best managed
railways could not do as much. The reason was that in France, for instance, a train was regarded
as late if it arrived at the terminus more than a miute after the hour stated in the time-table,
whereas an aeroplane was regarded as up to time if it reached its destination “ within twice the time
stated in the time-table ”. This definition of regularity was, moreover, the strictest; in most
European countries, and also in the United States of America, a journey by air was regarded as
“up to time ” if the aeroplane completed a fixed stage“ within the day on which it set out on the
stage ”. Within these very generous limits, the regularity of aeroplane services was steadily
improving, but it was still slight. Still less was there real punctuality or a really permanent
guarantee of service, for aviation was closely dependent upon atmospheric conditions and — more
generally—upon the season.
Reasonable safety had not yet been achieved. The official particulars consulted in drawing
up the report showed that passengers by air run a “ risk of death ” 1,060 times greater than passengers
by railway, and a “general risk of accident” 160 times greater. It had also had to be recognised
in the report that, in most cases, the proportionate risk in air travel remains practically stable.
This was due to extended services—in respect both of distance and time—-which were perhaps
over-ambitious, and which involved additional risks to offset the advance that had unquestionably
been made in “ technical guarantees ” of safety.
As to working costs, these were still very high, and there would be no question of lowering
them by foregoing any particular feature of aeroplanes (which needed to the full all the advantages
that they had). There might perhaps be some improvement as a result of aviation on a very big
scale, through the use of much larger machines than at present, but, even so, the regularity and
safety of such aeroplanes, and the services rendered by them, must be sufficiently real and patent
to secure a larger number of passengers, without which very larger aeroplanes would only mean
greater waste.
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The conditions being still so precarious, aeroplanes competed but feebly with — and did not
cause the least anxiety to — the European railways with their fast and frequent services, which,
moreover, were capable of an immeasurably greater daily output.
In some countries — especially “ new ” countries — ill-equipped with railways, roads, etc., but
active — the aeroplane already rendered such services that its true price could be charged and