Elmendorf Field, Anchorage, the War Department would be unable to permit the continued use of these field by civil aircraft beyond June 1, 1947, for Ladd Field and November 1, 1947, for Elmendorf Field.

As you no doubt realize, these two cities are the major centers of population, distribution, and trade in the Alaskan Territory, which, to a large extent, is dependent on air transportation for the movement of passengers, cargo, and mail. Unfortunately, the existing civil airports at Fairbanks and Anchorage are unsafe for aircraft larger than DC-3's and are both marginal and inadequate even for that type of aircraft. Neither airport, in the opinion of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, is worth improving because of their physical characteristics and of their proximity both to the cities and to the military airports.

Shortly after the receipt of the Secretary of War's letter, the Civil Aeronautics Administration, both here and in Alaska, urged the cities of Fairbanks and Anchorage to take the necessary steps to authorize local bond issues to raise the 25 percent contribution required under the Federal Airport Act. Both Anchorage and Fairbanks have total populations of less than 12,000, and the number of taxpayers is said to be less than 2,600 in each city. In view of the small populations and the dire needs of both towns for schools, streets, sewage disposal, and other essential utilities, the only action taken has been the authorization by Anchorage of a $250,000 bond issue. Although this sum constitutes a substantial contribution from a city of such small size, it appears that the amount will be no more than 3 to 4 percent of the total sum needed.

Unfortunately, the Territory of Alaska is unable to be of assistance in the matter of providing airports for these two cities. Its 1948 budget is reported to be unbalanced to the extent of some $7,000,000 (estimated income, $3,000,000; estimated expenditures, $10,000,000).

The inability of the Territory and the towns to contribute any substantial part of the 25 percent which would be required were the necessary construction to be performed under the Federal Airport Act is, we believe, demonstrable. Nevertheless, airports at both Anchorage and Fairbanks are necessary to the further development of the Alaskan Territory and to the continued economic prosperity and development of the existing communities in Alaska.

In addition, there is another factor contributing to the importance and urgency of this situation. The development of a significant part of United States international aviation will depend upon the availability of an airport suitable for international operations in the vicinity of Anchorage. It is estimated by the Civil Aeronautics Board that a substantial percentage (possibly as high as 75 percent) of all American-flag through air-line passengers to the Orient will be flown via Alaska, Anchorage being a certificated and essential stop on these operations. For the reasons stated above, the city of Anchorage would not only be unable to provide any considerable portion of the funds necessary for the construction of an international airport but it would also be unable to finance or handle the operation and maintenance of such an airport. Accordingly, it is felt that the plan proposed in H. R. 3510, whereby the Federal Government would assume responsibility for operation and maintenance, as well as construction of the international airport, is the only practicable solution to this difficult problem.

With reference to Fairbanks, consideration should be given to the fact that Weeks Field, the civil airport serving Fairbanks, was in operation some years before Ladd Field was built, and the proximity and direction of Ladd's runways are factors which alone will render Weeks Field unsafe for any commercial operations.

I have presented here but a brief statement of the considerations involved. The individual agencies of the Air Coordinating Committee most directly concerned, together with the Department of Interior, are interested in this situation and wish to request the opportunity to present to you and your committee all the facts bearing on this subject. Since the War Department feels compelled for reasons of national security to bar all nonmilitary aircraft from Ladd and Elmendorf Fields, it is the opinion of the Air Coordinating Committee that the Federal Government, with the least possible delay, should provide the separate airports at Anchorage and Fairbanks which are essential to the development of United States international aviation in the Northwest and to the development of these two vital centers of our Alaskan Territory.

The Air Coordinating Committee therefore urges favorable consideration by your committee of H. R. 3510 as introduced, and of H. R. 3509. With respect to the latter bill, the committee wishes, respectfully, to recommend certain revisions thereto as follows:

(a) In line 6 of section 1, after the word "airport", insert the following: “including the land and all facilities thereon." This amendment is considered desirable in order to clearly indicate that the "airport" intended to be transferred under section 1 of the bill is intended to include the land on which the installations are situated, as well as the installations themselves.

(b) Insert a new section 2 as follows and renumber the succeeding sections accordingly: "As a condition precedent to the transfer of the airport pursuant to section 1 hereof, the Administrator shall receive from the city of Fairbanks, in writing, those assurances required from sponsors of airport projects under section 11 of the Federal Airport Act." (Sec. 11 of the act provides that as a condition precedent to the approval of a project, the Administrator shall receive assurances that the airport and facilities thereon or connected therewith will be suitably operated and maintained with due regard for climatic and flood conditions, and with free use by the Government within specified limitations.) This addition is considered desirable to bring H. R. 3509 in closer harmony with the Federal Airport Act. The Federal Airport Act provides for contribution, by the sponsor, to the cost of construction as well as assurances outlined in section 11 thereof. Therefore, it would appear more equitable to require the city of Fairbanks to make such assurances as are required by project sponsors under section 11 of the Federal Airport Act.

(c) Insert a new section 7 to read as follows: "SEC. 7. The Territory of Alaska and the city of Fairbanks are hereby authorized to contribute funds to defray the cost of carrying out the provisions of this act, and the Administrator is hereby authorized to accept such funds on behalf of the Federal Government." This amendment is desirable in order to provide legislative authority for contribution by the Territory of Alaska and the city of Fairbanks of funds to defray the cost of building the airport, as well as the authority of the Administrator to receive such funds.

Due to the pressure of time, I have not secured the advice of the Bureau of the Budget as to the relation of this report to the program of the President.

Sincerely yours,

The Honorable WALLACE H. WHITE,

JAMES M. LANDIS,

Chairman, Civil Aeronautics Board, Cochairman, Air Coordinating Committee.

CIVIL AERONAUTICS BOARD, Washington 25, January 26, 1948.

Chairman, Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce,

United States Senate, Washington, D. C.

MY DEAR SENATOR WHITE: The Civil Aeronautics Board has been requested to comment on S. 1396, a bill to authorize the construction, protection, operation, and maintenance of a public airport in the Territory of Alaska.

The bill authorizes the Administrator of Civil Aeronautics to construct, operate, and maintain a public airport in Alaska at such place as he may deem most appropriate. Because of its economic importance and its strategic location with respect to international air routes, it is considered likely that Anchorage would be chosen as the site of the public airport.

Anchorage is both a certificated traffic point and an essential operational stop on the recently inaugurated through route from the United States to the Orient. In due course, some service by foreign air carriers from the Orient to the United States may be expected to operate via Anchorage. There are presently, at the time of year when operations are at their seasonal low point, 39 scheduled flights a week into Elmendorf Field, Anchorage. These flights do not include charter or contract trips or extra sections. All of these 39 flights are operated with multiengine equipment, and 13 of them with 4-engine equipment. The only airport at Anchorage or vicinity capable of handling 4-engine aircraft is the military airport at Elmendorf Field. The civil airport at Anchorage, Merrill Field, on which the city expended considerable money before the war, is unsafe for aircraft larger than DC-3's and is marginal and inadequate even for that type of aircraft. Its utility was severely impaired by reason of the construction of the military airport at Elmendorf Field in close proximity.

The need for landing facilities adequate for large aircraft at Anchorage has been partially met through the Army's permitting a limited use of Elmendorf Field by the civil air carriers. However, the Secretary of War over a year ago gave notice that in view of increased military activity the War Department

would be unable to permit the continued use of Elmendorf Field by civil aircraft after November 1, 1947. Since that date civil operations at Elmendorf Field have been restricted to 10 landings and take-offs a day. While this number is adequate for the time being insofar as scheduled operations are concerned, it does not take into account the anticipated early increase of such operations. As indicated above, Merrill Field is unsuitable for taking care of such increases, and unless improved civil airport facilities are provided at Anchorage the development of scheduled air transportation to and through that point will be seriously limited.

On the basis of the information which the Board has been able to obtain, it is clear that neither Anchorage nor the Territory of Alaska would be able to contribute any substantial part of the 25 percent which would be required were the necessary construction of a new airport to be performed under the Federal Airport Act, nor would they be able to provide any considerable portion of the funds necessary to finance or handle the operation and maintenance of an airport of the size required. Nevertheless, an adequate airport at Anchorage is necessary to the development of Alaska, to the continued economic prosperity of its existing communities, and to the growth of United States international aviation.

The proposed bill, whereby the Federal Government would assume responsibility for operation and maintenance as well as construction of the airport, appears to offer a feasible solution of the problem. The Board therefore urges the enactment of S. 1396.

Sincerely yours,

OSWALD RYAN,
Acting Chairman.

Senator CAPEHART. If you will state your name and whom you represent, please.

STATEMENT OF CARL MATTSON, ACTING DIRECTOR, ALASKA OFFICE OF THE CIVIL AERONAUTICS BOARD, ANCHORAGE, ALASKA

Mr. MATTSON. My name is Carl Mattson, acting director, Alaska office, Civil Aeronautics Board.

Senator CAPEHART. You may proceed in your own way and be just as informal as you please. Take as much time as you care to, keeping in mind that we are all leaving here on the 2:30 airplane this afternoon-so why don't you proceed in your own way and tell us what you think of this project, giving us the benefit of your thoughts and ideas. Mr. MATTSON. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I appear here today at the invitation of this committee as acting director of the Alaska office of the Civil Aeronautics Board in the absence of Mr. Stough, the director.

The opinions I express here are those of authorized spokesman for the Board and reflect the Board's interest in these two bills, S. 1396 and S. 1381.

Senator CAPEHART. Yield for just a moment. Are you appearing as a proponent or an opponent to the bills?

Mr. MATTSON. A proponent.

Senator CAPEHART. You are a proponent of the bills.

Mr. MATTSON. I have a brief statement here which I will read if the committee has no objection.

Senator CAPEHART. Would it be possible for you to tell us briefly in your own words what you think of the project and then file your brief to be printed in the record? Or, if you prefer to read it, it is perfectly agreeable.

Mr. MATTSON. Well, my only thought on that, Mr. Chairman was that I wouldn't be forced to express any personal views on it. The only views I may express, or that I feel I may express, are those of the Board an dthose that have been expressed by authorized spokesmen of the Board.

Senator CAPEHART. Why don't you just read your statement, if you care to, for Mr. Raymond Stough, director of the Alaska office, Civil Aeronautics Board.

Mr. MATTSON. The Board's interest in this legislation springs from its concern over the existence oin Alaska of facilities necessary to the maintenance and development of adequate air transportation. There are two reasons for this concern: first, air transportation is important to Alaska; and, second, Alaska is important to air transportation. Neither of these reasons require much detail particularization.

Alaska is peculiarly dependent upon air transportation. To a large extent the airplane still is the only alternative to the dog team. The airplane carries to many Alaskan communities not only the ordinary proportion and variety of business and pleasure traffic, but as well their principal volume of mail, their ordinary supplies, their heavy freight, and their seasonal supply of labor. The utilization of air transportation in Alaska in terms of the population per capita already is extraordinary. A recent report of the supervisor of the Alaska Aeronautics and Communications Commission states that for the year ending June 30, 1946, the passengers carried in Alaskan aircraft operations numbered 97,464. This total represents one air passenger for every permanent inhabitant of Alaska. Contrast may be made of this data with the figures for domestic United States air travel, which for the same year showed only 1 revenue air passenger for each 15 members of the population.

Before the war, the influence of air transportation upon Alaska was somewhat limited by reason of the small types of flying equipment generally utilized. Now, however, large equipment is available and is rapidly being substituted in service throughout the Territory. For example, Pan American Airways has just replaced its DC-3's with DC-4's, on its routes from Seattle through Juneau and Fairbanks all the way to Nome. Local carriers likes Alaska Airlines and Pacific Northern Airlines for some months now have been conducting services in and into interior Alaska with four-engine equipment and are utilizing DC-3's or comparable equipment for most of the balance of their operations. The growing utilization of large aircraft is an event of tremendous potential significance in the development of the Alaskan economy.

I have said that as air transportation is important to Alaska, so also is Alaska vital to air transportation. The Territory of Alaska lies athwart the great-circle air routes from the United States to the Orient. Recently Northwest Airlines instituted its scheduled air service via Alaska to China, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines. These countries contain more than 25 percent of the population of the world. In 1940 our trade with Asia amounted to over 112 billion dollars and it is anticipated that substantial increases will result from the further development of air transportation. The cultural and strategic implications of these air routes likewise are obvious. The exact proportion of traffic to the Orient which will follow any one route remains to be

seen, but parties appearing before the Board in formal proceedings have estimated that as much as 75 percent of the passengers to the Orient which our United States air carriers will transport, will cross the Pacific via the northern route through Alaska and the Aleutions. Virtually all of the traffic, of course, will be transported in large aircraft of the four-engine type.

I have spoken thus far of Alaska in general. In terms of air transportation, the two points in Alaska of the greatest significance are Anchorage and Fairbanks. These are the largest cities of interior Alaska. They are also the centers of trade and distribution. The Board's Territorial air map, copies of which I have left with your clerk, demonstrates, for example, how the trunk-line services funnel into these two points and how the auxiliary services radiate out from them. I should point out that this map does not portray Northwest's international routes which run from Minneapolis-St. Paul and Seattle and converge at Anchorage to continue on through the Aleutians to the Orient.

A few statistics may serve further to emphasize the preeminent positions, trafficwise, which Anchorage and Fairbanks occupy in relation to air service in, into, and through Alaska. A sample passenger-traffic survey in Alaska covering the 18-month period ending August 31, 1945, indicated that approximately 53 percent of all passengers originated at or were destined to Anchorage, while an additional 27 percent of all passengers moved to or from Fairbanks. Another survey, covering the 4-month period ending January 31, 1947, developed that an average of 61 flights per week departed from Seattle to Alaska and that Anchorage and Fairbanks were the two major terminal points for these flights.

The statistics of landings of large aircraft at these two points are perhaps of more immediate consequence. Taking only the regularly scheduled services of the four principal certificated carriers-Pan American, Northwest, Alaska Airlines, and Pacific Northern-plus the Canadian air carrier, Canadian Pacific, we find that as of today there are at least 44 flights a week into Anchorage and at least 29 flights a week into Fairbanks which are operated with large equipment. Of these flights more than half represent operations with four-engine aircraft. These flights do not include charter trips and extra sections. Thus, for example, during the seasonal migrations of the fishery and cannery workers, Pacific Northern Airlines alone operate an additional flight every day between Anchorage and Naknek with DC-4 equipment. These statistics also do not reflect the sizable operations of the contract and noncertificated carriers, the large portion of which have been conducted with DC-3, or larger equipment.

The international phase of these operations deserves brief additional emphasis. The 44 weekly flights into Anchorage with the large equipment include the 6 weekly landings for Northwest's new through service to the Orient. Anchorage is both a certificated traffic point and an essential operational stop on this route. The three round-trip schedules a week which represent the initial service on this operation are expected to increase at least 100 percent in number by the end of the year. In due course we may expect as well some service by foreign air carriers from the Orient to the United States via Anchorage. Under the terms of the bilateral air-transport agreement with China, signed last December, air services of that nation may be