740.00119 Control (Germany)/5–2346
Memorandum by the Air Directorate, Allied Control Authority, to the Coordinating Committee 37
CORC/P(46)177
Report on Extension of Existing Air Corridors in Germany CORC/P(46)8438
I. History:
1. A paper on this subject was presented to the Coordinating Committee and discussed in their Forty-third Meeting. The Coordinating [Page 761] Committee agreed that since the paper was an air matter and involved technical aviation problems, they would refer it to the Air Directorate for study and recommendations.
II. Discussion:
- 1.
- The British, French and United States members of the Air
Directorate agreed on the following:
- (1)
- Their respective governments and governmental agencies in Germany consider it essential to have air communications into and across Germany.
- (2)
- These lines of air communications must provide unrestricted and reasonably direct routes to the various parts of Germany and across Germany to the principal European centers of population.
- (3)
- Civil aviation companies will inevitably increase their operations into and across Germany as the military air transport, which has been serving the needs of all, restricts its operation to purely military usage.
- (4)
- For civil aviation to operate without excessive governmental subsidy, it must be encouraged and enabled to operate at peak efficiency. Efficient operation demands direct routes, planned schedules of operation for maximum utilization of aircraft and crews, and freedom from the uncertainties and delays caused by restrictions which require individual aircraft clearances.
- (5)
- The existing air corridors are inadequate to meet the requirements for air communications into and across Germany.
- (6)
- With slight modification, the proposal contained in CORC/P (46) 84 will fulfil the requirements for an adequate system of air corridors in Germany.
- 2.
- The Soviet Member of the Air Directorate dissented in the
following statement:
- (1)
- The Soviet delegation thinks that the existing system of Air Routes through the Soviet Zone of Occupation in Germany is fully sufficient, not only to meet the requirements of the Allied troops in the sector of Greater Berlin, but also to carry out successfully all the allied transportation needs for commercial cargoes regardless of their volume.
- (2)
- The argument put forward by the American delegation concerning the directness of the flights in order to ensure an efficient use of civilian aviation for commercial purposes, cannot be considered convincing, because, the air corridors established by decision of the Control Council of Germany CORC/P(45) 170,39 the air corridors Berlin–Frankfurt-am-Main, Berlin–Buckeburg, Berlin–Hamburg, and the air routes in use Berlin–Copenhagen, Berlin–Prague, and Berlin–Warsaw are direct lines of air traffic and geographical considerations do not permit shortening them.
- (3)
- The question of establishing commercial aviation within the boundaries of Germany does not come within the competence of the Air Directorate.
III. Recommendations:
By a majority vote, the Soviet member dissenting, the Air Directorate recommends:
- 1.
- That CORC/P(46)84 be
amended:
- a.
- To include four additional corridors: (see Annex B)*
- Cologne–Prague
- Strasbourg–Frankfurt-am-Main
- Strasbourg–Munich–Vienna
- Strasbourg–Innsbruck
- b.
- To stipulate that all corridors will be twenty (20) statute miles wide.
- 2.
- That CORC/P (46)84 as amended be approved and adopted by the Allied Control Council.
- Transmitted to the Department in despatch 3653, May 23, from Berlin (not printed). This paper was discussed at the 55th meeting of the Coordinating Committee, May 17; for minutes of the pertinent portions of that meeting, see infra.↩
- For text of CORC/P (46) 84, March 6, see p. 755.↩
- Dated November 22, 1945; for text, see Foreign Relations, 1945, vol. iii, p. 1576.↩
- Restricted distribution. [Footnote in the original. Annex B, not printed, consisted of a map delineating existing and proposed air corridors.]↩