AVIATION: Outlook: Drab

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T.W.A., still queasy over its financial troubles, last week had to swallow more bad news. The three-man arbitration board set up to end the T.W.A. strike (TIME, Nov. 4) unanimously awarded basic increases of from $26 to $122 a month for pilots and copilots of T.W.A.'s four-motored DC-4s and Constellations. The boosts were retroactive to Nov. 15.

Both the gold-plated Air Line Pilots Association and T.W.A. seemed satisfied with the board's decisions, which they had agreed in advance to accept. Most other airlines expected that the new wage scale would provide a pattern for all airlines. For T.W.A. and the other major airlines, the increases would be moderate.

Under the board's decisions, a T.W.A. senior pilot flying an international route theoretically will be able to earn a yearly maximum of $14,550, v. $13,725 at present. (Actually, thanks to time off rules and weather, few pilots can earn this much. Top guaranteed salary: $13,200.)

For flying an average of 81.8 hours a month, senior pilots on overseas runs will be paid from $925 to $1,100 a month, depending on the number of years of service, plus an additional $13.50 an hour for flying in excess of the average. For copilots on these runs: $290 to $520, with an extra $50 a month for those qualified as navigators.

On domestic runs, pilots will get approximately $1,000 a month for 80 flying hours; copilots, $280 to $460. The Board also agreed to give pilots such things as moving expenses, sickness and injury benefits, cost-of-living differentials (between Europe and the U.S.), two-and four-week vacations.

T.W.A. did not think the wage boost was big enough in itself to cause an increase in rates. But several of the nation's airlines, harried by rising expenses and falling traffic, thought that rates must go up before long. This would be a doubtful solution of their troubles. Higher rates would probably mean even fewer passengers on planes now flying with many empty seats. Said a Standard & Poor's analysis of near-future air transport earnings: "Drab."