Transatlantic Air Service Announcement of Approval of Expanded Air Service Between the United States and Europe.

The President today announced that he has approved major portions of a Civil Aeronautics Board decision significantly expanding air service between the United States and Europe. The President's decision approves 11 new cities for direct service to Europe. These cities are: Atlanta, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Tampa. It will also permit three new carriers to provide United States-to-Europe service, and it expands the route system of carriers currently providing such service. By increasing competition on the North Atlantic routes, the decision will result in better service opportunities for the public.

Today's decision approves the following portions of the Civil Aeronautics Board's recommendations:

--Northwest Airlines will replace Pan American on various routes between U.S. cities (Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Chicago, Detroit, Washington/Baltimore, New York/Newark, and Boston) and Glasgow and points in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland.

--Trans World Airlines' existing authority is renewed, and TWA is authorized to serve additional U.S. cities (Pittsburgh, Denver, St. Louis, Cleveland, Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Kansas City) as co-terminals on direct or nonstop transatlantic routes.

--Delta is granted authority to serve the Atlanta-London route.

--Pan American World Airways' certificate is amended to renew most of its existing authority, to authorize Miami-Madrid nonstop service, and to add Houston-London authority.

--National Airlines is awarded routes between Miami, New Orleans, and Tampa to Paris.

The President disapproved two portions of the decision. First, the President directed the Board to submit an order adding Amsterdam and Frankfurt to National Airlines' route system.

Second, the President directed the Board to submit an order designating Braniff Airways to serve the Dallas/Fort Worth-London route.

The decision to certificate Braniff Airways to serve the Dallas/Fort Worth-London route and National Airlines to serve Amsterdam and Frankfurt is based on the President's judgment that the certification of strong regional domestic carriers to serve international markets is important to his foreign policy of relying to the maximum extent possible on competitive forces in international aviation. To achieve this goal, the administration, in close cooperation with the Civil Aeronautics Board, is seeking more competitive bilateral air agreements with foreign countries. The President has also recently approved reduced fares on the North Atlantic and has permitted carriers such as Laker Airways to enter the market and provide service at substantially reduced rates. The decision to permit competitive pricing, however, depends on authorizing additional new carriers to serve international markets, as new competitors are an important source of price innovation. The President's decision to certificate Braniff, Delta, National, and Northwest--all of which are strong regional carriers--to serve new European markets is an important step in the pursuit of this overall foreign policy objective.

The Board was correct in relying upon regional carriers to provide competitive service in the North Atlantic. As the dissent points out, however, the refusal of the Civil Aeronautics Board to certificate Braniff Airways to serve Dallas/Fort Worth and the Southwest region is inconsistent with the remainder of the Board's decision, which permit strong regional carriers to serve their regions; for example, Delta and National to serve the Southeast and Northwest to serve the upper Midwest. The President believes that Texas and the Southwest region should have the same opportunity for innovative, competitive service as other regions.