Air Freight and Air Express

Abstract

Air express service is provided the public by Railway Express Agency, Inc.,1 pursuant to a uniform contract' with the multiple-service certificated airlines filed with and approved2 by the Civil Aeronautics Board.3 Air express moves under the tariffs and billing of REA. It, rather than the airline, occupies the relationship of carrier to the shipper. Under the contracts REA solicits business, collects shipping charges, renders pick-up and delivery service, routes the traffic, supervises transfers, does the accounting, handles claims, and performs all functions necessary for the conduct of the business other than loading and unloading planes and flying them between airports. The contracts provide for a pooling arrangement. After the deduction from gross revenues of the out-of-pocket expenses of REA, the balance is distributed 87?2 per cent to the airlines and i21/2 per cent to REA.4 Air freight service is rendered by the certificated multiple-service carriers, the newly certificated all-cargo carriers, and certain noncertificated and contract carriers under their own individual tariffs and billing. It is conducted independently of REA. Air freight is essentially a post-war development. It received its principal impetus from returned veterans who with surplus military aircraft launched the first serious effort to attract volume traffic to the air. American Airlines filed, on September 14, I944,5 the first tariff for the carriage of air freight since the enactment of the Civil Aeronautics Act of I938.6 It seems doubtful that the multiple-service carriers would have spent much of their energies in that direction had it not been for the advent of the noncertificated cargo carriers. Certainly, little progress was evident until their competitive influence was felt. Air freight in terms of ton-miles carried has made tremendous strides in a relatively short time.7 Measured in terms of financial returns to the carriers much re-