Coll 5/62 ‘India-Kabul Route: Question of establishment of an air service between India and Kabul’ [‎44r] (87/677)

Ref. 25/47/0/5
OFFICE OF THE HIGH COMMISSION!
FOR THE UNITED KINGDOM
6, Albuquerque Road,
New Delhi.
22nd May, 1247. ?-
i
Dear France
Civil Aviation Service in Afghanistan j ,
It appears from reports which have reached this office- that Afghan
Government have under consideration a number of schemes for the inauguration
of civil air services in the country. The first scheme involved negotiations
with an American Mission under General Giles sent by Trans-World Airways, and
as the result of which the following proposals were made to the Afghan Government,
(a) The establishment of services between -
(ij Tehran and Kabul via Herat and Kandahar;
(ii) Kabul and 3^ahrauvia Kandahar and Lingah;
(iii) Kabul and Karachi via Kandahar and Quetta;
(b) That 5 or 6 Dakota aircraft be used and T.W. A. provide the pilots
and technical staff to operate the services.
(c) Inauguration of the services to costi255,000; operation of the
services for the first year to cost dn ,354,59^; revenue from the
services to show a profit of 78,92o over operating costs.
No details are available as to the extent to which T. W. A. are prepared to
finance this venture but it is doubtful if the Afghan Government could afford
to lay out even 50^ of the cost of starting the services, nor even to pay for
the construction of a 2,000 metre runway at Kabul. It appears that the
Afghans ha«t expected the Americans to make all necessary runways and to build
up the ground organisation, whereas the Americans expected the Afghans to do j
this. For these reasons it would not appear that much progress would be made—^
on this scheme for some time to come.
2. The second scheme which has been considered by the Afghan Government is
the inauguration of an Afghan National Air Services Company to provide services
between:-
3. On the basis of the above services a number of paper plans sire said to
have been made, the most recent of which envisages -
(a) the foimation of a Company with Capital of ^s.5,000,000 (Afghanis)
(equal to Rs.1,250,000 (Indian));
(b) purchase of 6 Avro XIX aircraft.
Only nebulous calculations of operating costs etc. have so far been made. A
feature of the plan, however, is that the services would be operated by Afghan
Air Force personnel using military airfields. It is reported that no Afghan
yet possesses a ,r B" Class Flying Licence at present.
4. It has recently been announced in Delhi that a Government of India Civil
Aviation Delegation, which includes representatives of the R. I. A.F. and the
Indian civil air companies, is leaving for Kabul on the 22nd May at the
request of the Government of Afghanistan. The Mission hopes to negotiate an
agreement between Afghanistan and India. The Government of India h&ofc
previously for some years been contemplating asking for the Afghan Government’s
permission to extend the Delhi/Lahore/Peshawar service on to Kabul, but it had
then been decided that it would be better if matters could be so arranged that
the initiative came from the Afghan Government. It is understood that when
/the
R. E. France, Esq.,
Secretary of the UKRI Committee,
Cabinet Offices, S.W.1.