Licences and Lawyers Q INCE Mr. Tilsley (your January 25
Page 70
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issue) criticizes the " ignorance of two recent applicants for road service licences in the South Eastern Area, it is unfortunate that he is so ill-informed about the Air Transport Licensing Board.
It is only to Mr. Tilsley that "it seems" to have become the vogue for travel agents and/or tour organizers to hold air licences. The A.T.L.B. hears applications only from airlines and grants licences only to them; in the case of inclusive tour flights the travel agent concerned is named in the licence, but he is not the licence holder.
5544 The boot is indeed on Mr. Tilsley's other foot. Has he not heard of road service licences held by airline operators (and I don't mean B.O.A.C.), Reverend Mothers, industrial firms and others who own no p.s,v.s? It is in the Traffic Courts, not at the Air Transport Licensing Board, that one sees those comical processions of all-expenses-paid witnesses who testify to "need
Lawyers can be a great help in the traffic courts in suit
able cases. But—and again I cite the parallel of the A.T.L.B.—a competent applicant can often argue the finer traffic points of his case better than a lawyer who is briefing himself as the case goes along (yes, it does happen).
May I emphasize that I write as managing director of one of Britain's oldest p.s.v. operators, JOHN MAY, Managing Director, London,W.2. Charles Rickards (Tours) Ltd.