HSA Refuses Offer of Another Plane

An undergraduate who had plans to compete with the Harvard Student Agencies' European charter-flight service offerod his airplane to the HSA last week, but his offer was rejected.

Stephen A. Sohn '66 claimed last night that an agreement he reached with a British airline would allow the HSA to fly one plane-load of students to Europe for $29 less than its current minimum rate during the peak season.

The HSA's decision to reject Sohn's plane was reportedly based largely on fears that a cheaper flight would drain passengers from other HSA charters. If a chartering agent cannot present a sufficient number of passengers by a specified date, he can be asked to forfeit a ten per cent deposit. The flight is then canceled, or "aborted."

Sohn claimed that the forfeiture clause is rarely invoked, and described his offer as "reasonable and rational." "If charter flights are for the benefit of the students, this benefits the students completely," he said.

Sohn's Price $240

Under his agreement with Garber's Travel Agency, Sohn had been prepared to charter a prop-jet plane from Boston to London, leaving after commencement and returning during the first week of September. He would have charged $240, compared to the HSA's current peak-season minimum of $269 for a flight to Brussels.

Last week an Administration group raled that the HSA's charter-flight operation was "entirely satisfactory" and reaffirmed the agency's monopoly in the Harvard community. Sohn's plans, there-fore, collapsed, along with those of at least one other student group.

He went to Dustin M. Burke '52, general manager of the HSA, on Wednesday. At first he asked to operate his charter-flight as part of the HSA, but when told that this would be impossible, he offered to donate the plane.

Burke replied that this proposal would not be acceptable either. He explained that the HSA dealt only with one travel agency, University Travel Co.

Sohn planned to obtain his plane from British Eagle Airlines, a regularly scheduled carrier between London and the continent. British Eagle purchased the prop jets that the British Overseas Airways sold after last summer, according to Sohn. All HSA European charter flights in 1964 used the BOAC planes, but this summer's contracts are with other European lines.