North to Europe

From Los Angeles' fog-shrouded airport, a white and silver DC-6B of the Scandinavian Airlines System last week took off on the first scheduled commercial flight to Europe by way of the Arctic. By flying a great circle route, instead of across the continent to New York, SAS cuts the Los Angeles-Copenhagen route by 459 miles and the flying time by 2 hrs. 25 min. (The regular one-way fare of $574 saves the passenger $40; $970 round trip is $70 less.) Cruising at 300 m.p.h. at about 17,000 ft. altitude, SAS made only two stops on the 5,800-mile flight to take on gas. The plane let down at Winnipeg and at Greenland's Sondre Stromfjord, where the 6,000-ft. airstrip is known to its icebound U.S.A.F. maintenance crew and pilots as Bluie West 8, its wartime code name.

To pioneer its Arctic route,* SAS has invested $600,000 in additional communications equipment and ground facilities. But on pioneering flights, SAS pilots have found the route better flying than the often stormy Atlantic. SAS frankly admits that its new route is a gamble, is well aware that U.S. lines have shied away from it as a money loser. SAS hopes, however, to pick up enough traffic from the West Coast to fill a minimum 22 of its 32 seats, the break-even point.

*Canadian Pacific Airlines has applied for a Vancouver to Amsterdam route by way of the Arctic.

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