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$62,000 a Year. Similar logic is likely to spur other airline mergers, if the CAB approves the Northwest-Northeast combination as expected. Airline profits have been dropping since early 1968, and Pan Am, TWA, Eastern and Western have skipped dividends this year. The volume of air travel is no longer rising as fast as the lines' ballooning expenses. American, for example, is about to sign a contract that will grant senior pilots a $62,000 annual salary for 70 hours of flying a month on the jumbo 747 jets. Pan Am and TWA are both looking for domestic acquisitions; TWA was bidding for Northeast until two weeks ago. Eastern, which lost more than $2,000,000 in this year's first nine months, is ripe for a merger. It will face stronger competition on its Florida runs from Northeast backed by Northwest's money. The names of Delta, Continental and Braniff also come up in merger talk in Washington and on Wall Street.
The CAB appears sympathetic. Vice Chairman Whitney Gillilland said last week that "the public would be better served, and at lower fares" if some local-service carriers merged with trunk lines. The CAB's new chairman, Secor Brown, has privately told airline executives that a series of mergers among trunk lines is inevitable.
The attitude of the Justice Department, which could challenge mergers that the CAB approves, is less certain. The Northwest-Northeast tie is the kind of rescue of a failing company that Attorney General John Mitchell is inclined to approve. But Mitchell has been talking a tough line against mergers of major companies generally. Some airline executives fear that he may oppose any consolidations of the largest systems —however beneficial the tie-ups seem to both financial men and passengers. In a large number of cases, such a refusal would leave three or four airlines flying mostly empty planes over the same routes.