政治及經濟因素對美國西北航空公司東亞航線網絡之影響

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(1)國立臺灣師範大學地理學系第四十三屆碩士論文. The Political and Economic Influence on Northwest Airlines’ Route Network in East Asia. 指導教授：洪致文研究生：延欣智. 中華民國一〇三年六月.

(2) ABSTRACT Author: Hsin-chih Yen Advisor: Dr. Chih-wen Hung Title: The Political and Economic Influence on Northwest Airlines’ Route Network in East Asia Institution: Department of Geography, National Taiwan Normal University Degree: Master of Liberal Arts Year: 2014 Northwest Airlines operated one of the largest international route networks in East Asia from 1947 to 2010. Although Taiwan became one of its stops in Asia since 1950, it was not in the original network plan. The complex political, military, diplomatic and economic relationships between Taiwan, China, the U.S.A and other East Asian countries deeply affected airlines development and route network after the Second World War. The aim of this research attempts to analyze how these factors affected Northwest Airlines’ route network, and to understand the development of Northwest Airlines in Asia. Moreover, this research also analyzes Taiwan’s position in Northwest Airlines’ route network. The results suggest that many various factors played different roles throughout time. From the late 1940s to 1960s, Northwest Airlines’ route network was affected significantly by political and military factors because of wars and containment of communist forces. From the 1970s to the 1980s, with the international situation changing rapidly, diplomatic factor played an important role. After the 1980s, the airlines industry became less restricted, which enabled airlines to make decisions based upon the market instead of political interference. Therefore, economic factor has become more important than before. These findings have implications for understanding foreign airlines business development in East Asia rather than local airlines. As to Taiwan, due to unprofitableness and strong competitive with local carriers, Taiwan was not a focus city, but in order to keep integrity of Northwest route network in East Asia, Taiwan was still an important market.. Keywords: air transport geography, Northwest Airlines, route networks, East Asia, Taiwan I.

(3) 摘要研究生：延欣智指導教授：洪致文論文題目：政治及經濟因素對美國西北航空公司東亞航線網絡之影響校系：國立臺灣師範大學地理學系學位：文學碩士年份：2014 美國西北航空曾於 1947 年至 2010 年間飛行美國至東亞地區之航線，並於此建立相當大的航線網絡。西北航空於 1950 年起經營臺灣航線，但是臺灣並不在西北航空原先的航線網絡計畫之中。第二次世界大戰後，西北航空於東亞的航線網絡長期受到美國及東亞各國之間複雜的政治、軍事、外交及經濟等因素影響。因此，本研究試圖分析上述因素如何影響西北航空於東亞的航線網絡，並且探討臺灣於西北航空航線網絡中之角色。研究結果顯示，不同的年代有不同的因素影響西北航空的航線網絡。自 1940 年代至 1960 年代間，受到多起戰爭及圍堵共產勢力的影響，可將其歸類為政治及軍事之因素。1970 年代至 1980 年代之間，則受到國際情勢的改變，可將之歸類為外交之因素。1980 年代後，由於全球航空業逐漸自由化，使得航空公司在決策上擁有更多的自主權。因此，經濟因素逐漸成為最主要的影響因子。上述結果，有助於瞭解外籍航空公司於東亞地區的發展。至於臺灣於西北航空航線網絡之角色，主要受到臺灣航線長期獲利效益不高，同時更受到臺灣航空業者的強烈競爭，使得臺灣一直並非西北航空的重點發展地區，但是為了保持西北航空於亞洲航線網絡分布的完整性，臺灣對西北航空而言仍為一個重要的市場。關鍵字：航空地理、西北航空公司、航線網絡、東亞、臺灣. II.

(4) TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................IV LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................... V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................VI CHAPTERS I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 1-1 Research Motivation and Purpose ................................................................... 1 1-2 Research Method ............................................................................................. 4 1-3 The Spatial Development of Northwest Airlines ............................................. 6 II. THE REVIEW OF AIR TRANSPORT GEOGRAPHY................................. 10 2-1 The Development of Air Transport Geography ............................................. 10 2-2 The Route Network System ........................................................................... 13 2-3 The Development of Air Transport in Taiwan .............................................. 17 III. MILITARY INFLUENCE, THE STRATEGY OF THE U.S. ....................... 19 3-1 Fly to the Orient ............................................................................................... 19 3-2 The Imapct of Wars .......................................................................................... 24 IV. THE TRANSITION, AMBIGUOUS INTERNATIONAL SITUATION ...... 29 4-1 Travel Booms of Taiwan and Japan............................................................... 29 4-2 The Dispute of Cross-Pacific Route in the U.S. ............................................ 34 4-3 The Diplomatic Interference .......................................................................... 39 V. OPEN SKIES, THE RISE OF ECONOMIC POWER.................................... 47 5-1 Open Skies Policy .......................................................................................... 47 5-2 The Advance of Aircraft Technology ............................................................ 53 5-3 Hub and Spoke System in East Asia .............................................................. 61 VI. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 70 REFERENCES......................................................................................................... 73 APPENDIX ............................................................................................................ 77 III.

(5) LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1-1 Operating years of the U.S-Taiwan route by American and Taiwanese carriers, 1950-2013 ................................................................................... 2 Figure 1-2 Figure 2-1 Figure 2-2 Figure 2-3 Figure 3-1 Figure 3-2 Figure 3-3 Figure 3-4 Figure 3-5 Figure 3-6 Figure 4-1 Figure 4-2 Figure 4-3 Figure 4-4. The Trademark of Northwest Airlines, 1926-2010 ................................... 8 Stages in International Airport Development .......................................... 14 Route Network Patterns (Line, Grid) ...................................................... 16 Route Network Patterns (Hub and spoke) ............................................... 16 The Orient route in 1947 ......................................................................... 20 Regime of East Asian countries in 1947 ................................................. 22 Northwest business license in mainland China in 1947 .......................... 23 Flight schedule from 1947 shows domestic routes in China................... 24 Regimes of East Asian countries in 1950 ................................................ 25 The First Island Chain and Route Network of Northwest in 1960 ......... 28 The Number of Weekly Scheduled Flights of Northwest in Taipei ........ 31 The Aircraft of Japan Airlines leased from Northwest Airlines .............. 32 The Number of International Tourist to Japan by Airplane .................. 33 The Number of Outbound and Inbound Visitors of Japan from 1964 to 1970 ......................................................................................................... 34. Figure 4-5 The Influence of Modification to Northwest and Pan American ............ 37 Figure 4-6 Northwest’s Route Network in East Asia in July, 1968 .......................... 39 Figure 4-7 The Number of Countries Have Diplomatic Relations with R.O.C. or P.R.C........................................................................................................ 42 Figure 4-8 Northwest’s Route Network in East Asia in December, 1984 ................ 46 Figure 5-1 The Open Skies Partners with the U.S. ................................................... 51 Figure 5-2 The Percentage of the Weekly Flights between the U.S. and Japan ....... 52 Figure 5-3 The Number of Northwest Weekly Flights in Taiwan and South Korea from 2000 to 2010 ................................................................................... 53 Figure 5-4 Hamilton Metaplane and Boeing 747-400 of Northwest Airlines Fleet . 54 Figure 5-5 The Location of Cold Bay ....................................................................... 55 Figure 5-6 ETOPS Route and Non-ETOPS Route ................................................... 57 Figure 5-7 Northwest Boeing 727 and DC-10 aircraft ............................................. 58 Figure 5-8 Northwest 747-200 and 747-400 aircraft ................................................ 59 Figure 5-9 The Distance between Shemya Island and Destinations in East Asia ..... 62 Figure 5-10 The Route Network of Northwest’s Seoul Hub in 1991 ....................... 64 Figure 5-11 The Route Network of Northwest’s Osaka Hub in 2000 ...................... 65 Figure 5-12 The Route Network of Northwest’s Tokyo Hub in 2003 ...................... 66 Figure 5-13 The Number of Taiwanese and the U.S. citizens to the U.S. and Taiwan ............................................................................................................... 68 IV.

(6) LIST OF TABLES Table 4-1 Pacific Route modification in 1969 .......................................................... 36 Table 5-1 The U.S. Carriers Mergers and Acquisitions in the 1980s........................ 48 Table 5-2 Table 5-3 Table 5-4 Table 5-5 Table 5-6. The Performance of Propeller Aircraft in Northwest Airlines Fleet ......... 55 The Performance of Northwest Fleet in the 1960s ................................... 56 The Performance of Northwest’s Trijet aircraft ........................................ 57 The Performance of Northwest Boeing 747 series ................................... 59 The Number of Passengers (Thousands) on Scheduled Service between the U.S. and territories ............................................................................. 63. V.

(7) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Chih-wen Hung, for his constant inspiration, patience and professional suggestions during these five and half years. Since I was undergraduate, Dr. Hung has taught me how to do research and given me plenty of opportunities to present my works. He was the most important source of inspiration through the entire study. I would like to thank the committee members: Dr. Sue-ching Jou and Dr. Shew-jiuan Su, for their interest in Northwest Airlines and my research, and giving me invaluable advices. As an aviation enthusiast since early childhood, my parents have given me all support to chase my dream. I would like to dedicate the thesis to them and my beloved family. Without their support and encouragement, I could not overcome these difficulties. I also appreciate all of my dear friends’ help and support, especially thanks to 陳舒雯, 李沛樺, 宋健豪 and 許哲維. This research is a spectacular journey. It brought me to the United States twice, and the United States has always been the country I have most wanted to visit. The thesis could not be finished without kind help from many people. I would like to extend my appreciation to Loren Aandahl for providing valuable information of Northwest Airlines. I am grateful for the assistance given by Bruce Kitt, president and the curator of NWA History Centre; Vince Rodriguez, Robert DuBert, Jerry Nielsen and many other volunteers of NWA History Centre. Also, I appreciate assistance from the staff of Minnesota Historical Society. I met many wonderful people when I was in Minnesota. I would like to offer my special thanks to Stamate Skliris, Mary Dimitropoulos and Christina Bakritzes. They are the nicest people I have met in my life. They let me experience the hospitality of Greek culture, and taught me to be generous and selfless giver. Therefore, I would also like to dedicate this thesis to them. ευχαριστώ πολύ!. VI.

(8) Chapter Ⅰ Introduction 1-1 Research Motivation and Purpose. Air transport has been a highly regulated industry in the world (European Commission, 2013). Even though many countries have executed “Open Skies Policy” in recent years, governments still have power to manage the industry. Air transport industry is not only including carriers and air cargo, but also air traffic rights and air routes, which are the leverages in the economic or political negotiations between countries (Civil Aeronautics Administration, 2012). Therefore, the air traffic rights and air routes are closely related to national interest and even diplomatic relations. Japan, for example, broke off diplomatic relations with Republic of China (hereafter R.O.C.) in 1972, and signed the air service agreements with People’s Republic of China (hereafter P.R.C.) in 1974. This caused the suspension of air service between Japan and R.O.C. from 1974 to 1975. The same thing happened again in 1992 between R.O.C. and Republic of Korea, and the air service had been suspended for 12 years. From 1949 to 1987, the airline industry was a restricted industry in Taiwan (Civil Aeronautics Administration, 2012, p. 15). If foreign carriers would operate services to Taiwan, it depends on municipal law and the air service agreements between two countries. Besides, there are still many factors influencing carriers’ operation. For instance, in the early stage, because the development of Taiwanese air transport industry was much slower than the United States (hereafter the U.S.), passenger services were only operated by the U.S. carriers, e.g. Northwest Airlines (hereafter Northwest), Pan American World Airways (hereafter Pan American) etc., until China Airlines operated the U.S.-Taiwan service in 1970, which broke the American monopoly on this route. There were 11 Taiwanese and American carriers operating the U.S.-Taiwan passenger services from 1950 to 2013 (Figure 1-1). Taiwanese carriers are China. 1.

(9) Airlines and EVA Airways. China Airlines was state-owned flag carrier1. Because of governmental support, its route network was expanded rapidly. EVA Airways was founded in 1989, and it is the first privately owned international air carrier after “Open Skies Policy” was executed in Taiwan. China Airlines inaugurated its service to the U.S. in 1970, and EVA Airways operated much later than China Airlines, in 1992. Both of them were later than the U.S. carriers operated this route. The rest nine carriers were American, and they were limited by air traffic rights or different marketing strategies, so the times that they operated flights to Taiwan were distributed. Before 1978, the year of Airline Deregulation Act (ADA) took effect, only Northwest, Trans World Airlines and Pan American had services to Taiwan. After 1978, Continental Airlines, Aloha Pacific Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Airlines and American Airlines joined the market.. Northwest. Trans World Pan American Continental Aloha United. Operating Years. Delta American Hawaiian China Air.. EVA. 1950. 1960. 1970. 1980. 1990. 2000. 2010. Figure 1-1 The Taiwan-U.S. Air Transport Service by American and Taiwanese carriers, 1950-2013. Note: There were 10 American and Taiwanese carriers operating flights between the U.S. and Taiwan from 1950 to 2013. It shows that eight American carriers (above the black line) had operated on this route. However, only two Taiwanese carriers (below the black line) had operated flights on the route.. Reviewing the history of the U.S.-Taiwan air service, it is observed that the longest-operating carrier on this route is Northwest, which is also the only American 1. flag carrier: There has been no clear definition of flag carrier. In the early age, flag carrier meant the state-owned carrier, which was invested by government directly. With the liberalization of airline industry, the current flag carrier still means state-owned carrier, or means carrier with clear national features by airline liveries, logos, flight attendant uniforms, etc. (Bowen, 2010). 2.

(10) carrier operating on this route continuously. Northwest inaugurated service to Taipei in 1950, just after the R.O.C. government retreated to Taiwan. Therefore, it became the first foreign carrier operating flights to Taiwan. However, its relationship with R.O.C. government started before 1950. Before R.O.C government retreated to Taiwan, Northwest had operated flights from Seattle and Minneapolis, via Anchorage and Shemya Island to Tokyo, Shanghai and Manila. Nevertheless, after the Communist ruled the mainland China in 1949, there had not been air services between mainland China and the U.S. until 1984. At that time, the U.S. recognized R.O.C. as the official Chinese government. As a result, Taipei replaced Shanghai becoming the only destination in “China” in 1950. Into the 1970s, with the transformation in international political situation, the U.S. and other countries turned to establish diplomatic relations with P.R.C. Accordingly, this caused many countries to sign the new air service agreements with R.O.C., some carriers were even forced by P.R.C. to establish subsidiaries to operate flights to Taiwan. However, American carriers had less impact than other countries’ carriers, even though the U.S. also signed the new air service agreement with R.O.C. For example, Northwest became one of the few carriers in the 1980s that could operate flights to mainland China and Taiwan simultaneously. Furthermore, R.O.C. even became the first East Asian country that signed the “Open Skies Agreement” with the U.S. in 1997. From the examples above, we can find that there have had many factors influencing the route network since the end of the Second World War. Northwest, as the first foreign carrier in Taiwan and the largest American carrier in East Asia, still impacted significantly by the international and political situations. Accordingly, the purposes of this research are: (1) To identify how military, political and economic factors influence Northwest’s route network in East Asia (2) To analyze Taiwan’s role in Northwest’s route network As to the definition of East Asia, this research refers to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. United Nations (2009) defines East Asia as China (including Hong Kong and Macau), Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Japan, Mongolia and Republic of Korea. Republic of China (Taiwan), as part of East Asian countries, is not on the list because it is not the member of United Nations. This 3.

(11) research also discussed the Philippines and Aleutian Islands, Alaska. However, the Philippines is part of Southeast Asia countries (United Nations, 2009). Furthermore, The Aleutian Islands are part of Alaska, so they are part of North America. Even though these two places are not in East Asia, they were the destinations of Northwest in the initial stage. Therefore, this research still discuss the Philippines and Aleutian Islands, but seen them as extra discussion.. 1-2 Research Method. Northwest announced to merge with Delta Air Lines in 2008, and completed the merger in 2010. After the merger, Delta Air Lines is the surviving company, on the other hand, Northwest is the dissolved company. Therefore, this study only focuses on the period before the merger.. (1) Historical Data Collection The study needs to collect the historical data of Northwest, including system timetables, press release and Northwest Passage, an official newspaper for employees. We can re-build Northwest’s route network in East Asia by means of system timetables. Moreover, other historical data can help us realize Northwest’s background, history and decision-making. Most of data are from Minnesota Historical Society and NWA (Northwest Airlines) History Centre, which locates in Saint Paul, Minnesota and Bloomington, Minnesota respectively. However, it is not possible to collect all of the system timetables and complete official data. Therefore, this study attempts to utilize other data from The Yearbook of Transportation and Communication and Statistical Yearbook of Civil Aviation, both are published by Ministry of Transportation and Communication R.O.C. In addition to official data from Northwest and R.O.C. government, many newspaper articles about Northwest’s routes and world events are from UDNDATA, a Taiwanese newspaper database from United Daily, which provides full articles of United Daily, Economic Daily News and Min Sheng Daily, etc. from 1951 to date.. 4.

(12) (2) Interview This research uses qualitative interview methods to obtain more information about Northwest. The historical data collections provide the structure of Northwest’s route network, but they cannot illustrate the process of decision-making. Therefore, the interview is crucial to this research to understand how Northwest scheduled flights and planned the route network. Patton (2001) indicated that the qualitative interview methods can be divided into three different kinds: informal conversational interview, general interview guide approach and standardized open-ended interview. Informal conversational interview is the most flexible among these three ways. Interviewer, who does not have any prepared questions for interviewee, has to collect data and ask questions from the observation. On the other hand, standardized open-ended interview is suitable for questionnaire survey or a large number of interviewees. It has to use the same words, sentences or tone for asking questions, which is to minimize the differences and inaccuracy between different interviewees. However, in order to increase the efficiency of interview, this research uses general interview guide approach. Interviewer needs to prepare some questions and topics, but both the interviewer and interviewee can freely discuss any related topics during the interview.. A. Interviewee For a better understanding of the internal decisions from Northwest, the study interviewed Loren Aandahl, who worked at Northwest Airlines from 1991 to 2007, and was Managing Director, International Planning and Scheduling from 1999 to 2007. From the interviewee, we can understand how decisions were made, what factors they considered, and what Taiwan’s role in Northwest’s route network in East Asia was.. B. Interview Questions The interview was held on August 24th, 2013. Because the interviewee was not in Taiwan, the interview was conducted via webcam from National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei. The following are the interview questions: a. What are airlines’ considerations when they open or cease routes? And from your experiences, do those considerations have any differences 5.

(13) between Northwest and other airlines? b. Among all of the American airlines, Northwest dominated the Asia-Pacific markets; Did Northwest have the main strategies or plans to Asia in different decades? c. Northwest and United [United Airlines] chose Tokyo Narita Airport as the hub in Asia. Why did Northwest choose Tokyo instead of Seoul, Taipei or Hong Kong? d. Most of American airlines had operated flights to Taiwan, but except Northwest and United, others did not stay in Taiwan for a long time. Why Northwest had operated flights to Taiwan for such a long time, because the market was good, or other reasons? e. According to annual statistics from Ministry of Transportation and Communications R.O.C., Northwest’s Taiwan-US routes reached the peak in 1983 and 1984. The calculated method was seen “Starts and Ends places” as different routes. Is this a correct way? To airlines, how to calculate the number of routes?. 1-3 The Spatial Development of Northwest Airlines Northwest Airlines was founded by Colonel Lewis H. Brittin on September 1st, 1926 in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. Northwest was air mail carrier from Minneapolis to Chicago in the first year, and started passenger service in July, 1927. And the following year, Northwest served Winnipeg, Canada and became an international airline. In the beginning, the company was under the name Northwest Airways and changed it into Northwest Airlines in 1933. During its first five years, the passenger service served mostly in the Midwest, and in 1933, the routes extended to Spokane and Seattle, Washington and more cities in the area of Pacific Northwest. The Second World War broke out in the Pacific region in 1941, and Northwest carried out 11 government wartime assignments including lifeline to Alaska, bomber modification center and variety of special projects during 1942 to 1944. In 1945, Northwest became the fourth transcontinental air carrier, from Seattle to New York via Twin Cities. 1947 was a milestone year for Northwest, which started serving flights to Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai and Manila. Northwest became the second 6.

(14) American carrier that served the Orient, and the first carrier flew Great Circle route to Asia. With the advance of aircraft technology, Northwest introduced faster, safer and more efficient aircraft into its fleet, such as Douglas DC-8 in the 1960s, and Boeing 747 in the 1970s. Northwest started transatlantic passenger service to Northern Europe in 1979, destinations including Copenhagen, Stockholm, Glasgow, Amsterdam, and so on. In 1986, in order to expand domestic route networks, Northwest acquired Republic Airlines, one of the largest American carriers that based in Minneapolis-St. Paul as well. Before the merger, Northwest mainly operated single hub in the U.S., which was Minneapolis-St. Paul. But after the merger, Northwest added Detroit and Memphis, which were Republic Airlines’ hubs, as the second and third hubs in the U.S. In 1993, Northwest began cooperation with Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij (KLM, the flag carrier of the Netherlands) in the next two decades, which was the first large airlines strategic alliance in the world. Therefore, Northwest expanded its network in Europe rapidly, and also built a hub in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Just into the 2000s, the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001 hit American airline industry extremely hard. Because of the reduction in passenger demand, Northwest reduced flight operation and implement new flight schedule. In 2004, Northwest joined SkyTeam2, a fastest growing global airline alliance, increasing its route networks to more than 130 countries. After going through incidents such as September 11th terrorist attacks, the hostilities with Iraq, high jet fuel price and lack of union wage cuts in the early 2000s, Northwest filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2005 and emerged from bankruptcy in 2007. On April 14th, 2008, Northwest announced its merger with Delta Air Lines, at the time creating the biggest airline in the world. Northwest became a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta on October 29th, 2008 and the merger was completed on January 31st, 2010. After the merger, the company uses Delta Air Lines as the brand, and eliminates the name of Northwest Airlines. Northwest Airlines as its official brand name, had used another marketing name 2. SkyTeam is one of the third largest airlines alliances in the world (Star Alliance and Oneworld). It was founded by AEROMEXICO (flag carrier of Mexico), Air France, Delta Air Line and Korean Air in 2000. Because Air France and KLM have become the largest European airline group since 2004, KLM joined SkyTeam in 2004. Northwest, as close partnership with KLM for two decades, also joined SkyTeam in September, 2004. 7.

(15) nearly 40 years—Northwest “Orient” Airlines. Tracing back to 1947, Northwest inaugurated services between the U.S. and the Orient, and since then, Northwest added “Orient” into the company’s name until 1986, yet the company’s official name had been still the same—Northwest Airlines. From the “name-adding”, we could realize that Northwest considerably respects Asian markets.. 1926-1933. 1934-1944. 1945-1947. 1948-1957. 1958-1962. 1963-1968. 1969-1986. 1987-2003. 2004-2010. Figure 1-2 The Trademark of Northwest Airlines, 1926-2010. Note: From 1926 to 2010, Northwest had used nine different trademarks. The first two trademarks shows that Northwest was U.S. Airmail Express in the initial stage.. 8.

(16) This research focuses on the Northwest’s development in East Asia from 1940 to 2010. From the 70-year history, it can be found that every decade has various influences on Northwest’s route network in East Asia. However, the overall influences can be divided into four major factors: military, political, diplomatic and economic factor (Appendix A). Chapter II is literature review, which provides different discussions of air transport geography and the development of air transport in Taiwan. Chapter III discusses the military influence, which mainly focuses on the 1940s and the 1950s. Chapter IV illustrates how Northwest’s route network changed from the 1960s to the early 1980s. Political and diplomatic factors are the major influences during this period. Chapter V focuses on the economic influences, which has become the main affection from the late 1980s to the end of Northwest Airlines, 2010. It is notable that this research defines fleet plan and requirement as part of economic influence because fleet plan impact on profit directly. Therefore, the economic influence is distributed over different decades. However, the discussion still mainly focuses on the period between the 1980s and 2010.. 9.

(17) Chapter II The Review of Air Transport Geography This chapter discusses the development of air transport geography and the development path of air transport in Taiwan. Air transport geography, as a sparse research field in Taiwan, does not have many studies until recent decade. We could explore how geographer research air transport by reviewing the international and local studies of air transport geography. In section one, attention will be drawn to the development of air transport geography. Comparing to car, ship and train, airplane was very late invention. However, since airplane was invented, it has changed the way the world connects (Bowen, 2010). Accordingly, air transport has become one of research field in transport geography. Section two discusses the route network system. The air route network has its own stage of development. In addition to the stage of development, this section also addresses the angle of airlines to discuss the expansion of route network. Section three focuses on the development of the air transport in Taiwan.. 2-1 The Development of Air Transport Geography. With the development of transport technology, the movements of people and goods have become more and more unrestricted. Transport Geography focuses on the impact of transportation. There are two research orientations of transport geography. One is transport system, including economic, political, technological influences and spatial distribution. The other is the impact of transportation, which focuses on how transport influence the distribution of social and economic activity (Knowles, Shaw, & Docherty, 2008, p. 5). Transport geography has been seemed as an important research field since the nineteenth Century. The Quantitative Revolution occurred during the 1950s and 1960s, and since then, spatial view has become stronger, which changed transport geography. It started emphasizing spatial analysis and making transport models, which enabled transport geography to develop independently (Taaffe & Gauthier, 1994). Air transport geography, as a subfield of transport geography, focuses on how air 10.

(18) passenger or freight transport, including airport and aircraft, influence one place (Bowen, 2010). After the Wright Brothers invented airplane in 1903, airplane gradually changed the way people move. Airplane has not only reduced the costs of time and money but accelerated the chance of cultural exchanges. Therefore, air transportation has become one of the focal points of geographic researches. Unlike researchers from other subjects, geographers use air transportation to describe concepts such as connectivity and linkages, development patterns at various scales, and the global economy (Vowles, 2006). Vowles (2006) provided an excellent review of the development of air transport geography from the early twentieth century to the twenty-first century, which indicated that every decade has different research orientation. For example, before the 1960s, the studies of air transport geography discussed the interaction of aviation development, airport establishment and local development in a variety of different scales, such as city, nation and continent. Sealy (1957) published The Geography of Air Transportation, which was not the first textbook of air transport geography, but it covered a wide range of research. The book analyzes air transport from the aspects of physical geography to area studies. Therefore, it can be seemed as the foundation works of air transport geography (Wang & Mo, 2011). Furthermore, many researchers found that the rapid growth of air transport was related to regional development and landscape shaping. For instance, Taaffe (1962) stated that dominant city’s airport could control part of the air routes between several states; that is to say, the majority of passengers who travel internationally still need to transfer via the airport in dominant city. Taaffe and Gauthier (1973) further illustrated the relationship between city distribution and passenger patterns. If a city with more population or unique city function, then it is more likely to become a dominant city. For example, Chicago is the largest city in American Midwest; therefore, it has more international flights than other Midwest cities. During the period of 1960s to 1980s, the topics of air transport geography studies were increasingly diverse. For example, people improved the living standard in the 1960s, and gradually emphasized environmental protection. Accordingly, many researchers, such as Stratford (1974), focused on the environmental issues that related to air transport. After 1990s, it was more convenient to obtain the data of airline industry for researchers due to the popularity of internet. Meanwhile, many journals 11.

(19) were started publishing, such as Journal of Transport Geography and Journal of Air Transport Management, which enabled transport and air transport geographers to have specialized journal to issue. Published research of air transport increased considerably in 1990s, in addition to the above two reasons, the other reason was due to the deregulation of airline industry in the U.S. Vowles (2006) explained: “The deregulation of airline industry in the United States in 1978 had created a ripe area of research, and by the 1990s the geographic impacts were readily visible”. There were some emerging research topics after 1990s, such as hub-and-spoke systems, low cost carriers, the relationship between air routes and global city, etc. As to Taiwan, the island country heavily relies on ocean freight and air transport in order to connect with the world. The origin of airline industry in Taiwan derived from Japanese colonial period. In the 1920s, the Japanese government introduced aircraft into Taiwan for military needs, and introduced civil aviation in the 1930s for schedule flights between Japan and Taiwan. After the Second World War, because of the military tensions between mainland China (P.R.C.) and Taiwan (R.O.C.), many countries couldn’t maintain normal diplomatic relationship with Taiwan. Therefore, there are numerous related researches from diplomatic and administrative perspectives. However, those researches have long been monopolized by other research fields, such as transport management, public administration, aeronautic engineering and atmospheric science. Transport management focuses on airlines route networks analysis; public administration deals with the special relationship between Taiwan and other countries; aeronautic engineering explores the latest aviation technology, including engine, fuselage materials and air traffic control; atmospheric science discusses different factors that influence airborne aircraft in order to strengthen the safety of air travel, such as wind shear, turbulent and so on. From the examples mentioned above, we found that there are a wide range of air transport studies, but the studies of air transport geography in Taiwan are still minority. Furthermore, most of the air transport geography studies focus on airport noise pollution and the land use around the airports. However, the number of air transport geography studies has grown significantly in the recent years because of cross-strait flights and the planning of Taoyuan Aerotropolis. For example, Chang, Hsu, and Lin (2011) analyzed the impact on Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Macau after Taiwan and China have had the direct scheduled flights since 2008. Even though the Chinese 12.

(20) passengers can come to Taiwan, but they cannot transfer to the third country via Taiwan. Accordingly, this caused Taiwan to lost many passengers. Before the cross-strait direct flights, Macau and Hong Kong were the major transfer airports for Chinese and Taiwanese to enter Taiwan and China. However, since the direct flights policy has been executed, both airports has lost huge amount of passengers, especially Macau airport. Overall, the research showed that the airport and airlines are not only influenced by its country’s policies, but also influenced by neighbor countries’ policies, political and economic factors. Air transport has increasingly played more and more important role in our daily life. It not only changes the way we move, but also alters the way we understand the world. However, even though air transportation is in the most liberal era, it is still limited by some political restrictions. Some of the studies of air transport geography used the route network system of airlines to discuss those external influences. But what exactly does the route network form? And, what is the relation between route network and the influences of politics, economy, etc.? The answers to those questions may help us understand the geographical patterns of route network, and how the external influences intervene in air transportation.. 2-2 The Route Network System. There are many factors influencing the development of airline industry, for example, airport location, technology, politics, economy, and so on. Those factors not only influence the industry, but also the route network of carriers. Route network is one of the key of the airline business, it directly relates to the passengers’ decision when they choose airlines. However, the factors which impact on route network mostly controlled by other institutions such as aircraft manufacturers and governments, instead of airlines itself. Therefore, airlines have been in a passive position to make decision about route network for a long time. This section will discuss the studies of route network and try to use different scales exploring the topic. Most of passengers nowadays are looking for direct flight when they need air travel, because it is more efficient and time-saving. But when it traces back to the early age of aviation development, it was a goal that hard to reach. Because of technological barrier, transcontinental flights needed intermediate airports to refuel. 13.

(21) Fleming and Hayuth (1994) explained the centrality and intermediacy of transportation hubs, e.g. airports or seaports. They gave an example for the intermediacy, which indicates that Anchorage, Alaska, was an unimportant point for commercial air service. However, since Northwest had operated flights from Minneapolis and Seattle to the Orient through North Pacific route after the Second World War, Anchorage and Shemya Island, in Alaska and the Aleutians respectively, became the intermediate airports for refueling. They also noted that the influence of centrality and intermediacy change over time. O'Connor (1995) was motivated by their studies and explained more details about the changes of route network. He divided the development of international airport into four stages (Figure 2-1). Although his research mainly focused on the airport development, the concept could still increase the understanding of route network from the early years.. Figure 2-1 Stages in International Airport Development. Source: Adapted from O'Connor, K. (1995). Airport development in Southeast Asia Journal of Transport Geography, 3(4), 269-279. 14.

(22) O'Connor (1995) indicated that those airports in stage one can be divided as two categories, major origins and intermediate stops. From his research of airports development in Southeast Asia, he noted that major origins, such as Singapore and Hong Kong, are providing accessibility across a large region or part of a nation. These cities are financial centers which have important status in the world; meanwhile, they have great facilities that are related to tourism. All of these reasons make them become the region’s gateways. In contrast with gateways above, intermediate airports, such as Calcutta and Surabaya, are like isolated economies, whether local or international linkages are weak. Most of them just provide stop-over traffic, technical service and maintenance. As the centrality of major origins became stronger and furthermore the aircraft technology made progress, the intermediate airports were eventually more unimportant and overpassed, which is the stage two. The example from O’Connor’s research is Darwin, a city in Northern Australia, where was an intermediate stops from Singapore to Sydney. Because of better aviation technology, flights between Singapore and Sydney did not need to stop at Darwin anymore. Stage three shows that the major origins became significant hubs. Most of the linkages between small airports need to pass through the major origins, this is called proximity effect. Passengers from secondary airports are attracted by better linkages and the convenience, therefore to transfer via the hubs, which not only impacts on the routes planning, but limited the development of minor airports. Stage four explains the shift in traffic to the new axis. Few hubs have opportunities to become world cities, which mean central place in international air transport network. World cities not only have linkages with small cities but also attract more traffic from hubs. The four stage development shows the importance of airport’s centrality and intermediacy, but it is from the perspective of a city or a region instead of airline business. Therefore, the city’s status in the world plays an important role. However, from airline’s perspective, the airline has more autonomy to build its route network. According to Hanlon (2007, p. 123), most of airlines’ route networks can be divided into three categories: (1) Line, (2) Grid, (3) Hub and spokes. In line network(Figure 2-2), airlines operate flights from base airport via multiple intermediate stops to final destination. The intermediate stops not only provide refueling service but also more passenger traffic. However, due to the increasing of aircraft range, the intermediate stops become unnecessary. Therefore, few airlines currently using line network 15.

(23) pattern. The grid network was suitable for domestic air transport (Figure 2-2), especially in the large-area country such as the U.S. The merit of grid network is increasing the rates of utilization of aircraft and cabin crews. But after the U.S. Congress deregulated the airlines industry in 1978, grid network was gradually replaced by hub and spoke system.. Figure 2-2 Route Network Patterns (Line, Grid). Note: Figure (a) shows line network; Figure (b) shows grid network.. Hub and spoke network has been widely used after airlines deregulation since 1978. Before airlines used the new network, in order to connect to more cities, airlines needed to add more flights on each routes (Figure 2-3). But after airlines used the hub and spoke network (Figure 2-3), the efficiency was improved significantly, and passengers also had more choices.. Figure 2-3 Route Network Patterns (Hub and spoke). Note: Figure (a) shows the routes pattern before airlines use hub and spoke network; Figure (b) shows the route networks after airlines use the hub and spoke network.. 16.

(24) 2-3 The Development of Air Transport in Taiwan. The air transport in Taiwan derived from Japan when Taiwan was colonized by Japanese in the early twentieth century. After R.O.C. government retreated to Taiwan, the air transport system had enormous changes, also faced more challenges. According to Ho (2010), Taiwan locates the best place in Asia Pacific, that has the shortest flying time to major cities in East and Southeast Asia. However, comparing to other airports in neighbor cities such as Hong Kong, Tokyo or Seoul, the major international airport (Taoyuan International Airport) in Taiwan is not an important transit point in East Asia. Ho also analyzed the development of civil air transport in Taiwan after the Second World War. The development can be divided into four periods: (1) Initial period (1949-1966): After R.O.C. government retreated to Taiwan in 1949, the government took over all the airports and aircraft repair plants from Japanese government. At the same time, the U.S. also provided technical support and training. Because it was still during the war period, all the resources of aviation were controlled by the R.O.C. military. (2) Local dominant period (1966-1979): From the late 1960s and the 1970s, R.O.C. lost its international status. The flag carrier of R.O.C.—China Airlines, still built a strong network to neighbor countries under the government’s support. (3) Local developmental period (1979-1987): There were many changes from the late 1970s to the late 1980s because of a series of international and local events. For example, Taoyuan International Airport was built due to the energy crisis in the 1970s. Also, the rapid growth of air passenger and cargo traffic were due to the deregulation of tour abroad for Taiwanese and the rapid development of information technology industry. (4) Global influence period (1987-Now): With the trend of liberal aviation policy, R.O.C. deregulated airline industry in 1987, and signed Open Skies Agreement with the U.S., Japan, New Zealand and Singapore in the 1990s and the 2000s. From Ho’s research, we knew that the civil aviation in Taiwan was affected by Japan and the U.S. greatly in the initial stage. Wang (1998) also discussed Taiwan’s 17.

(25) civil aviation development, but he was from the perspective of diplomacy, and focused on the relationship between the U.S. and R.O.C. He divided the civil air transport between the U.S. and R.O.C. into three stages. First stage was from the signing of the U.S.-R.O.C. air transport agreement in 1946 to the severance of Diplomatic Relations between the US and R.O.C. in 1979. The second stage was from the signing of new U.S.-R.O.C. air transport agreement in 1980 to the signing of open skies agreement with the U.S. in 1997. The third stage was after the signing of open skies agreement until now. Although Wang presented a new perspective, his research was focused on Taiwanese issues and the U.S.-Taiwan relations. That is, most of Taiwanese researches focused on Taiwanese airlines and issues, but when it comes to foreign airlines, Taiwanese issues could not explain them all. For example, Northwest’s operation in Taiwan was not only subject to the air transport agreement but also restricted by the U.S. law and international situation. However, the latter two factors were mentioned less frequently. Earlier researches pointed out the role of air transport, which has become more and more important. Air transport geography has a wide range of research topics, from the theory of route network to the relationship between airport and city. From both international and Taiwanese air transport geography researches, we found that the research topics and its development had great differences. The researches of air transport geography in Taiwan have become more popular recently because of some latest local events. However, most of Taiwanese researches focused on local issues and local airlines. The local perspective is enough to explain the development of air transport in Taiwan, but could not illustrate the foreign airlines’ operation in Taiwan or East Asia. In this sense, the thesis tries to use different angle to discuss the route network of foreign airline in Taiwan and East Asia, and analyze the external influence on its route network and operation.. 18.

(26) Chapter Ⅲ Military Influence, The Strategy of the U.S. This chapter discusses the origin of Northwest’s Orient flight, and the military influence on Northwest’s route network in East Asia after the Second World War. Therefore, this chapter starts from the early 1940s to the late 1950s, that is to say, from the Second World War to the aftermath of the Second World War in East Asia. 3-1 Fly to the Orient The original idea of the Orient routes should be traced back to the beginning of the Second World War in Pacific region. After Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii in 1941, the Japanese military kept moving forward to the Aleutian Islands and Alaska. These places were the most vulnerable area on the North American mainland due to the following reasons: (1) defenses were weak at that time, (2) the outermost Aleutians are not far from Japan, (3) the tough environment of the Aleutians and Alaska held back the U.S. military outposts establishment (Ruble, 1986, p. 75). The U.S. military needed to take action to respond to the Japanese. However, there were no air routes as well as other related facilities to both regions at that time. Accordingly, the U.S. military sought help from Northwest. Before the Second World War, Northwest had already known as its winter operation in the Northern America, such as flights between Northern states and even to Canada, so the U.S. military signed contract with Northwest for setting up new routes, radio stations, providing facilities and goods, and even carrying troops to the front. During the wartime, Northwest not only helped the military as just mentioned, but trained pilots and built plants for bomber modification. Therefore, Northwest received Army-Navy “E” Award3 from the military for its excellent contributions in 1944. Because Northwest had great skill flying in the severe environment and knew the air routes in Alaska and the Aleutians regions well, Northwest started interesting in the other side of the Pacific—Asia. In the late 1940s, Pan American intended to operate flights between North Army-Navy “E” Award was awarded to individual plants or company for honoring their outstanding performance on war production during the Second World War. The award was given by the U.S. War Department and the U.S. Navy Department (Naval History and Heritage Command, n.d.). 19 3.

(27) America and Asia through mid-Pacific route, which was via Hawaii and other islands such as Wake Island and Guam. Northwest, as a pioneer in Alaska and the Aleutians route, was the first commercial carrier flying through this area. Because this route is the shortest between North America and Asia, it is also called “Great Circle route”. The route is about 1,900 miles shorter to Shanghai, and about 1,600 miles to Manila than the route via mid-Pacific4. The Great Circle route to the Orient was approved by Civil Aeronautics Board (hereafter CAB) and President Truman in 1946, and the first survey flight took off on January 1st, 1947. The survey flight carried 32 people, including meteorologists, scientists, mechanics and Lewis E. Langdon, later Northwest manager of Shanghai5. Nearly one-year preparation, the inauguration of Northwest Orient flight took place on July 15th, 1947. Inauguration ceremonies were held in New York, Minneapolis and Seattle6. At the beginning, Northwest used four propellers aircraft—DC-4 for the Great Circle flight to the Orient, and because of insufficient endurance for flying to the Orient directly, the plane needed to refuel in Edmonton, Canada, Anchorage and Shemya Island, a military base in the Aleutians (Figure 3-1).. Figure 3-1 The Orient route of Northwest in 1947. Note: Shemya Island was the intermediate stop between Anchorage, Alaska and Tokyo, Japan. 4. Predicts 77,000 Per Year Will Fly Route to Orient. (1947, July 25). Northwest Passage News, p. 6. N.W.Preparing for survey hop. (1946, December, 26). Spokane Chronicle, p. 5. 6 In 1947, the flagship products of Northwest were “Coast-to-Coast” and “the Orient” flights. Therefore, Northwest operated flights from New York, the largest city of East Coast, via multiple cities including Minneapolis to Seattle. Passengers could transfer flights to the Orient from Minneapolis or Seattle. Accordingly, Northwest chose to hold the inauguration ceremonies in New York, Minneapolis and the terminal stop of Coast-to-Coast air route—Seattle. 20 5.

(28) from 1947 to 1961.. In contrast to the stable condition of society in the U.S., the Orient flight’s destination—East Asia, sank into chaos after the Second World War (Figure 3-2). The Second World War in the Pacific region ended in the mid-1945, since then, Japan had been occupied by the Allied Powers until 1952. The colonies of Japan were ceded to different governments, for instance, Taiwan was ceded to R.O.C., and Korea was separated using the 38th parallel north, north part was occupied by the Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics (hereafter the U.S.S.R.), and the south part was occupied by the U.S. Therefore, at least two capitals in East Asia, Tokyo and Seoul, were controlled by the U.S. in the early postwar period. During the occupation of Japan, Allied Powers implemented military restrictions for avoiding Japanese military getting stronger again, and commanded that the Japanese government could not have their own military, including civil air transport industry. The military restrictions which also affected Northwest’s operation in Tokyo required passengers on nongovernment business to stay aboard the plane in Tokyo and left for other destinations (Ruble, 1986, p. 109)7. As to China, where finally terminated the state of war and recovered rapidly. Paul Benscoter, Northwest’s station manager in Shanghai, said:. In contrast, Shanghai during the immediate post war period was a bustling city with a festive air. British, French and American businessmen had gotten things back in shape. The city was gay and there was plenty of food and entertainment. (Ruble, 1986, p. 107). Quick recovering in China and the military restrictions in Japan, which made Shanghai become the most important revenue source in the early postwar period, for example, Shanghai route segment accounted for 29% of the passenger miles on Northwest’s international system in 19488.. 7. During the period of military restrictions, passengers, who left for Shanghai, Seoul or Manila, were not allowed to get off the plane in Tokyo. 8 Nixon Announces 5-Point Plan to Ease China Travel & Trade. (1971, May). Northwest Passages. 21.

(29) Figure 3-2 Regime of East Asian countries in 1947. According to the business license of Northwest in China (Figure 3-3), Shanghai branch was established on August 30th, 1947.Yet the date of the license shows a sign of erasure, the original date should be on July 30th, 1947. Nevertheless, both dates show that Shanghai branch was established after the inaugural flight. The license also shows the branch manager was Lewis E. Langdon, and the company’s agent ad litem (訴訟代理人) was Cornell S. Franklin. The license also indicates part of the air transport agreement between R.O.C. and the U.S. The first air transport agreement between R.O.C. and the U.S. was signed on December 20th, 1946. Based on the agreement, American carriers had right to transit and non-traffic stop in Chinese territory, as well as the right to pick up and discharge international traffic in passengers, cargo and mail at Shanghai, Tientsin, and Canton. Besides these three cities, Chinese authority also agreed to add additional stops if needed (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1972).. 22.

(30) Figure 3-3 Northwest business license in mainland China in 1947. Source: Anonymous. (1947, March). Northwest Airlines Shanghai Branch. Retrieved from http://catalog.digitalarchives.tw/item/00/65/28/ae.html. In the Northwest flight schedule (Figure 3-4) which was published in November, 1947 shows multi-stops in China. For example, flight from Tokyo to Shanghai, via Harbin, Mukden (Shenyang), Dairen, Peking (Beijing) and Nanking. It was considerable difference between schedule and air transport agreement. However, despite the fact that Northwest got the certificate of those domestic routes in China, the company has never operated flights to those stops except Shanghai due to Chinese Civil War.. 23.

(31) Figure 3-4 Flight schedule from 1947 shows domestic routes in China. Source: Northwest Airlines. (1947, November 15). Northwest Airlines System Timetable. Retrieved from http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/nw.htm. 3-2 The Impact of Wars Chinese Civil War, a struggle between Nationalist party (led by Chiang Kai-shek, 蔣介石) and Communist party (led by Mao Ze-dong, 毛澤東) started in 1927, and came to a compromise in a short period for fighting Japanese. The war broke out again soon after the Second World War ended. Considering the battlefront was gradually close to Shanghai, Northwest and the other American carrier — Pan American, were going to move their office to Taiwan9. Shanghai Campaign (上海戰役) began in May, 1949, and therefore Northwest suspended Shanghai service on May 15th, 1949. The Shanghai service had only lasted one year and ten months. Nationalist troops kept losing the war while their rival—Mao Ze-dong established People’s Republic of China on October 1st, 1949, and R.O.C. government decided to retreat to Taiwan in December, 1949. Since then, China has been divided into two countries, R.O.C. in Taiwan and P.R.C. in the mainland (Figure 3-5).. 9. Pan American and Northwest's Shanghai Offices will move to Taiwan (汎美西北航空公司滬辦公室將遷臺, Chinese). (1949, February 2). Taiwan Ming-Sheng Newspaper, p. 1. 24.

(32) Figure 3-5 Regimes of East Asian countries in 1950. Despite the fact that P.R.C. occupied mainland China successfully, the U.S. still recognized R.O.C. as official Chinese government, and regarded P.R.C. as a Communist enemy. Therefore, there had been no air service between the U.S. and mainland China from late 1949 to the 1980s. After R.O.C. government settled down in Taiwan, in order to restore the civil air transport industry to normal, the government tried to ask foreign airlines to fly to Taiwan. There were two American carriers, Northwest and Pan American, having air service in mainland China before, so R.O.C. government gave both airlines priority. However, Pan American rejected the offer because of the unstable political situation. In contrast with Pan American, Northwest accepted the offer immediately and prepared to go back to Chinese territory, but not in the mainland anymore (Huntley, 1955). Although Northwest consent to R.O.C. government’s invitation for operating flights to Taiwan, Croil Hunter, the president of Northwest from 1937 to 1953, still consulted General Douglas MacArthur, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (hereafter SCAP), in Tokyo in April, 1950, just before the survey flight to Taipei. General MacArthur thought it was safe and without problems to fly to Taiwan, the suggestion enabled Northwest to operate this route without more hesitations10.. 10. Northwest Airlines: Inaurated flights from the U.S. to Taiwan (西北航空公司臺美線開航, Chinese). (1950, June 6). Taiwan Shin Sheng Daily News, p. 2. 25.

(33) On May 3rd, 1950, Central News Agency, state news agency of R.O.C., invited American reporters, including William C. Bullitt, Jr., the former the U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R. and France, to Taiwan for understanding the ordinary lives in “Free China”. Those reporters took Northwest flight to the island; meanwhile, this was also the first time that Northwest landed in Taiwan as a survey flight11. The survey flight not only carried news correspondents but also carried some facilities for setting up the scheduled flight (NWA News Bureau, n.d.). A month later, on June 3rd, 1950, Northwest inaugurated scheduled flight to Taipei, Taiwan, and since then, Taipei became one of the stops between Tokyo and Manila. As to Korea Peninsula, the other hotspot in Asia, has been divided into two countries, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (hereafter North Korea) and Republic of Korea (hereafter South Korea) after the Second World War. These two countries were occupied by the U.S.S.R. and the U.S. respectively, and both have become independent countries in 1948. Northwest inaugurated flights to Seoul, the capital of South Korea, in 1947. However, war forced Northwest to suspend commercial service again. The Korean War broke out on June 25th, 1950, so Northwest suspended its service to Seoul a month later and moved the destination to Pusan, the largest port city in the southeastern Korea. The war ended on July 27th, 1953, Seoul soon after returned to Northwest’s destinations in Asia, Northwest ceased service to Pusan in 1956, however. During the Korean War, Northwest not only kept operating flights to South Korea, but also participated in military missions. Since the United Nations (hereafter the U.N.) decided to support South Korea, they needed to find airplane for observing and others missions. Therefore, the U.N. chose to cooperate with Northwest by reason of its three-year air service experiences in Seoul and the Orient. Northwest helped the U.N. to buy a DC-3 aircraft from Hong Kong Airways, which had service agreement with Northwest at that time. Although the aircraft was painted the United Nations’ emblem (Code: UN-99), Northwest was in charge of all the crew member and repairs (NWA History Centre, 2004). Since the U.S. urged to build the wall on the first island chain to prevent the Communist from expanding their power through Asia, the status of those countries in the Western Pacific, such as Japan, South Korea, R.O.C. and the Philippines, were 11. Central News Agency Invited U.S. Reporters to Taiwan for Traveling (中央社邀美新聞界來我國觀光, Chinese). (1950, April 30). Taiwan Ming-Sheng Newspaper, p. 1. 26.

(34) even more important than before (Song, 2003). As mentioned previously, Japan and South Korea worked with the U.S. closely. Okinawa, also known as Ryukyu Islands, was part of Japan before the Second World War. Okinawa had been occupied by the U.S. in 1945 during the Second World War. Since then, the U.S. has built military bases for filling in the vacancy between Japan and Taiwan. Although the U.S. returned the governance of Okinawa to Japan in 1972, they still have owned the military bases. Because of the military bases in Okinawa, there was a high demand for passenger flight from the U.S. Northwest started operating passenger flights to Okinawa in late 1947. The Philippines had been colonized by the U.S. since 1898 and colonized by Japan during the Second World War. The U.S. also built military bases in the Philippines, such as U.S. Naval base Subic Bay and Clark Air Base. After the Second World War, the Philippines has become independent country, but the U.S. still owned those bases. Therefore, Manila, the capital of the Philippines, was Northwest’s destination in the initial period of the Orient flight. As regards Taiwan, after R.O.C. retreated to Taiwan in 1949, the U.S. helped R.O.C. in many different ways. From the military side, the Military Assistance Advisory Group (hereafter MAAG) came to Taiwan in April, 1951. MAAG was not only as a consultant but bringing troops to station in Taiwan. As General Douglas MacArthur said, Taiwan’s position is very important to the U.S. He described Taiwan as “unsinkable aircraft carrier”, and regarded Taiwan as the vital link in the American defense from the Aleutians to the Philippines (Wei, 2012). There were still some conflicts between P.R.C. and R.O.C. on some small islands which near mainland China in 1954, 1955 and 1958, those conflicts were not as massive as before, however. Besides built the military bases, the U.S. also signed the Mutual Defense Treaty with Japan, South Korea, R.O.C. and the Philippines in the 1950s. These treaties not only steadied those East Asian countries but ensured the military benefits of the U.S. in Asia, which contributed to the defensive ability of the first island chain. The national defense, regional stability and the civil air transport have been interrelated. For example, to Northwest, the significance of the Orient route is not only for business. Croil Hunter mentioned on the inaugural ceremony of the Orient flight: “The new route will open new opportunities for business, new vistas for travel. It will 27.

(35) spearhead rehabilitation of the Far East and will strengthen national defense”12. From the route network map of Northwest in May, 1960, which shows a strong tie between Japan, South Korea, R.O.C. and the Philippines (Figure 3-6). The route network also corresponded with the first island chain. Because these countries have become alliances of the U.S., there were considerable political, military and economic collaborations.. Figure 3-6 The First Island Chain and Route Network of Northwest in 1960. In sum, the wars and military force not only swayed the region’s spatial development of air transport but influenced the air route and Northwest’s destinations in East Asia in the early postwar period significantly. Northwest developed the route to Alaska and the Aleutians for the U.S. military during the Second World War, which also opened up the opportunity for the pioneering airline. After two-year operation in East Asia, the Chinese Civil War and the Korean War influenced Northwest’s route network, and which enabled Taipei and Pusan to become one of the nodes in the Northwest international route network. With the U.S. strengthened the defensive ability in first island chain, Northwest could be able to strengthened the route network in East Asia. 12. Route Called Aid to Future World Peace. (1947, July 25). Northwest Passage News, p. 2. 28.

(36) Chapter Ⅳ The Transition, The Ambiguous International Situation Since the end of the Korean War, there were still some conflicts in East Asia, especially between R.O.C. vs. P.R.C. and South Korea vs. North Korea, those conflicts were not large-scale wars, however. Accordingly, most of the East Asian countries started focusing on domestic affairs and economic development, which were helpful to air transport industry. The air transport industry of East Asian countries was still in initial stage, therefore, American carriers such as Northwest and Pan American had dominated the Orient routes from the U.S. for a long time. Although Northwest was in a leading position, the influence of the Cold War and the international situation of postwar period limited Northwest’s route network to Japan, South Korea, R.O.C. and the Philippines. Despite the fact that Northwest expanded its services to Hong Kong in 1966 and Osaka in 1967, the route network was still confined in these places until 1984. The period between war influence and the economic domination from the late 1980s are the transitional period. With the rapid changing international situation, there were numerous factors to affect the route network of Northwest in East Asia, including political issues, governmental policies and diplomatic conflicts. This chapter illustrates how Northwest’s route network changed from the 1960s to the early 1980s, but some influences can be traced back to the 1950s. Therefore, for the integrity of illustration, this chapter also discusses part of cases in the 1950s. The chapter is presented by three sections: (1) from the travel policies of Taiwan and Japan to see an increase of Northwest’s flight frequency; (2) the dispute of transpacific routes in the U.S. showed the growth and popularity of transpacific routes; (3) the interference in Northwest’s route network by diplomatic dilemmas of Taiwan and the formal diplomatic relations between the U.S. and P.R.C.. 4-1 Travel Booms of Taiwan and Japan. (1) Taiwan After the R.O.C. government moved to Taiwan from mainland China, they 29.

(37) considered Taiwan as a temporary stopover, and launched planning for a counterattack. Northwest, as the only American carrier had operated flights to Taiwan in the 1950s, supported R.O.C. counterattacking mainland China13. Croil Hunter, and Harold Harris, the president of Northwest from 1954 to 1955, even proclaimed that Northwest would provide assistance, if R.O.C. retakes of mainland China by force14. However, as time went by, the possibility of counterattack was less and less. Meanwhile, due to the lack of basic supplies, the U.S. provided financial and technical support to R.O.C. for reforming the economy, including foods, educational, medical, agricultural and industrial aid. Among numerous supportive projects, one of them was for building tourism industry. But in the early 1950s, the circumstance in Taiwan was not clear and unstable, Frank Huntley, Northwest’s district sales manager in Taipei, did not recommended travelers going to Taiwan at that time (Huntley, 1955). However, R.O.C. government officially encouraged tourism to come to Taiwan in 1958. Owing to the Cold War, the U.S. and its allies had no connection with P.R.C., Taiwan had become one of the few places in the world that American or other foreigners could experience and understand the Chinese culture. But the political problem still held back the tourism industry. “We all know many tourists have avoided Formosa15 because of the international situation, but there is no reason for this 14,000 square miles of fabulous scenery”, Joe Sykes, the Northwest sales manager in Taiwan said16. Even though R.O.C. government encouraged foreigners to travel to Taiwan, Taiwanese citizens could not travel abroad freely. R.O.C government deregulated the travel restrictions in 1979, before that, only students overseas, Taiwanese missions overseas and high officials could travel abroad. In the meanwhile, most of the U.S. citizens who came to Taiwan were soldiers and public officials for carrying out the military missions or supportive projects. As a result, the passenger demand was not as high as today, but Northwest still operated this route. In addition to maintaining the relationship for both sides, it also showing the political support from the U.S. (Wang, 1998). In the 1950s, Northwest maintained three weekly flights to Taipei (Figure 4-1), 13. Taiwan's military is strong enough to attack the Communist (臺灣國軍強大可以擊退犯匪, Chinese). (1950, June 11). Taiwan Ming-Sheng Newspaper, p. 1. 14 NWA President Harold Harris Visits Taiwan. (1953, November 3). Cheng Chi Chung Hua p. 4. 15 The island of Taiwan has been called “Ilha Formosa”, which was named from Portuguese sailors in the sixteenth centuries. “Ilha Formosa” in Portuguese means “beautiful island”. Northwest’s system timetables in the 1950s also marked the island country as “Formosa” instead of Taiwan. 16 Sell Formosa, Sykes Urges. (1958, February). Northwest Airlines NEWS. 30.

(38) but increased to seven flights per week in the late 1960s. The major cause of the growing trend was because of the 1964 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, which promoted tourism not only in Japan but also neighboring countries. For promoting tourism to Taiwan, R.O.C. government built many luxury hotels such as the Ambassador (國賓大飯店), which was opened in 1964. In addition, the government also allowed foreign travelers to stop over for up to 120 hours without visa, which was only allowed to stop over for up to 72 hours before 1964 (Pollock, n.d.). After the game, Northwest kept increasing flight frequencies in Taipei, and it became daily flight in 1968. It can be seen as the demand kept growing, not just caused by single event such as Olympic Games. Meanwhile, not only in Taipei, Northwest had added more schedule flights in East Asia, which enabled the passengers to have more options. 8 7 6 5 4 Weekly Flights. 3 2. 1 0 1950. 1952. 1954. 1956. 1958. 1960. 1962. 1964. 1966. 1968. Figure 4-1 The Number of Weekly Scheduled Flights of Northwest in Taipei. Note: The gray blocks show the data unavailable. It is unable to collect Northwest system timetables of year 1951, 1958, 1959, 1962, 1965 and 1967. Although the data are not complete, the overall data show the growing trend of the weekly flights of Taipei in the 1960s. Source: Northwest Airlines System Timetables. (2) Japan Since the end of the Second World War, Japan had controlled by the Allied Powers until 1952. Japan has not had military since the military restrictions came into force, but they still have had Self-Defense Forces (自衛隊). The military restrictions also affected other industries such as travel and civil aviation. SCAP had terminated civil aviation industry in Japan from 1945 to 1950. In 1947, the State Department and 31.

(39) SCAP allowed American carriers (i.e., Northwest and Pan American) to begin services in Japan for rebuilding Japanese economy. And in 1951, Japan finally has had their own international airline—Japan Airlines, due to the deregulation of civil aviation. To Japanese, the meaning of the new airline was the economy, status and prestige re-establishment (Karsner, 2007). In the initial stage, Japan lacked for aircraft and resources, so SCAP asked some foreign airlines to help Japan Airlines to operate domestic flights, such as Civil Air Transport17, Pan American and Northwest, etc. However, other airlines left the job to Northwest in the end (Leeker, 2013). The official incorporated date of Japan Airlines was August 1st, 1951, but Northwest served flight from Tokyo to Osaka in the name of Japan Airlines on January 1st, 195018. Later, Japan Airlines leased five Martin 202 airplanes and one DC-4 from Northwest (Figure4-2). In addition to the aircraft, all the pilots and flight attendants were from Northwest too. Therefore, the character of Northwest in Japan was not only an American carrier but also crucial to the future of Japan Airlines.. Figure 4-2 The Aircraft of Japan Airlines leased from Northwest Airlines. Note: Japan Airlines had leased five Martin 202 (Left) from Northwest for a year. The vertical stabilizer was still showing the U.S. aircraft number: N93049. Japan Airlines also leased a DC-4 (Right) from Northwest under the name “Tenousei”, which means Uranus. Source: The photo usage is authorized by Japan Airlines. Japan Airlines. (n.d.) History of JAL. Retrieved from http://www.jal.com/en/history/aircraft/. 17. Civil Air Transport (hereafter CAT) was founded by the U.S. General Claire Chennault in 1946. CAT was an airline based in Taipei, Taiwan. It provided passenger services to Asian countries; meanwhile, because the airline was owned by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, it also provided military missions, especially to Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries. The airline was dismissed in 1976. 18 Japan Air Lines' First Post-War Flight was a Momentous Event. (2009). Reflection, 7(2). 32.