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Belgian Workhorse. The first airline Douglas DC-6 to cross the Atlantic arrived in Brussels three weeks ago for Belgium's 51% state-owned chosen instrument Sabena (Sociéte Anonyme Beige d'Exploitation de la Navigation Aérienne). Tight little Sabena, run with Belgian thrift and caution—adding equipment only when justified by traffic, cannily working only high-traffic routes—is making money. It has spread its lines over Europe and Africa as far south as Johannesburg, and has earned enough to pay back $2 million of the subsidies the Government advanced it from 1923 till 1940. With its new DC-6s—two more of which are to come—Sabena hopes to do much better.
Champagne & Truffles. Air France, 60% state-owned, has recovered fast from its wartime crackup. Now it has about 185 planes in use (71 U.S.-made) and 111,677 route miles radiating from Paris over most of Europe and on to New York, Shanghai, French West Africa, Rio and Buenos Aires. Its No. 1 attraction: wine-mellowed marathon meals, which take 450 miles of flight to consume, from consommé through truffled chicken and brandy. But Air France is still heavily dependent on the state treasury.
Sweden, Denmark and Norway have combined their flag carriers (17% state-owned in Denmark, 20% in Norway) into the privately controlled Scandinavian Airlines System, Inc. S.A.S. now is in the black on its daily round trips to New York, is losing money elsewhere.
Dutch Treat. Holland's K.L.M. Lines, restored to prewar strength, is already giving U.S. lines plenty of competition. Ex-flyer and President Albert Plesman now runs six Constellations, 24 DC-4s and 25 DC-3s on a network stretching over half the globe. K.L.M. plans to buy 30 more U.S.-built planes out of the $37-odd million loaned by The Netherlands Government, which has 51% control. The Netherlands Government claimed that K.L.M. was now showing a small profit, but, as in any state-run enterprise, the method of bookkeeping was half the battle.
In all, the major foreign airlines are now flying some 550 planes on international routes, compared to 150 for the four big U.S. international lines. So far, the better U.S. planes have enabled American lines to make up for mere numbers. But as foreign lines get their new U.S. planes into the air, the gap is narrowing. The U.S. share of the profitable transatlantic run, which was 83% last year, had been whittled down, at last count, to 75%.
* Brother of the New Republic's publisher, Michael Straight.