Memorandum Concerning the International Phase of the Large Irregular Air Carrier Investigation.

[ Released January 12, 1961. Dated January 9, 1961 ]

Memorandum for the Chairman, Civil Aeronautics Board:

I have carefully considered the recommendation of the Civil Aeronautics Board in the international phase of the Large Irregular Air Carrier Investigation, Docket No. 5132 et al. I have reviewed the case on the basis of foreign policy and defense considerations together with other elements of the national interest that are within my particular responsibilities and have decided (a) to approve the Board's denial of applications and ( b ) to withhold my approval in other respects.

I appreciate the Board's objectives in proposing temporary certificates authorizing each of the twenty-two "supplemental" carriers to conduct foreign and overseas cargo operations and overseas passenger transportation on an unlimited number of charter flights and on ten individually way-billed or ticketed flights per month in each direction between each of any pair of points. I also recognize that the present limitation on such operations--irregularity in the number and pattern of flights--creates many difficulties.

In view of present levels of competition, however, the number and breadth of the proposed certificates imply a potentially serious economic impact upon the existing overseas and foreign route operations of United States carriers. This concern is not met by the record now before me. Even that record, moreover, has become out-dated over the period during which I have withheld action on the recommended certificates because of the still-unresolved question--which arose in the separate domestic phase of the case--concerning the Board's legal authority to issue certificates of the proposed type.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER