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More Efficiency, Less Luxury. Airlines are doing their best to cut costs. They have the support of a presidential fact-finding commission in their effort to eliminate the flight engineer from the jet crew, on the ground that the jets already carry three pilots (v. only two for piston craft) and that the simpler engines do not require the attention of a fulltime engineer. (The angered engineers may strike Pan Am this week to dispute the recommendation.) Airlines have also put a new emphasis on efficiency. Continental Air Lines, which makes money, owns only five jets but gets the most out of them by repairing and servicing them at night, claims the industry's best utilization record.
Executives of the airlines have come to realize that low fares and on-time performance attract more passengers than do frills and filet mignons. Eastern Air Lines has had good success with its new air shuttle linking New York, Washington and Boston with older prop planes. Passengers have no reservations but are promised a seat, pay for their tickets aboard. Fares are lower (by some 16%) in return for Spartan service (passengers wheel their own bags to the loading gate, and water is the only flight-time refreshment). Profit-making United Air Lines is trimming costs by serving more modest meals on the jets. Says President William A. Patterson: "It's plain ridiculous to stuff down as much food on a short jet flight as on a long piston one."
Trend to Mergers. No one thinks such economies are enough to solve the industry's troubles. Many transportation experts, among them Harvard's Paul Cherington, argue that the U.S. hardly needs a dozen major lines, that some sensible mergers would eliminate costly separate facilities and ground crews. The CAB's new Chairman Alan S. Boyd, 39, is merger-minded, and he is already hunting a strong mate for Northeast Airlines. His goal is to strengthen the airlines so that they will be able to make the next technological leap forward—to supersonic jets by the early 1970's—without massive federal subsidy. To accomplish that, Chairman Boyd believes that the CAB must abandon its policy of rewarding the weak to keep them alive. "That era has passed," says Boyd. "My philosophy is one of consolidation."