January/February, 1980
page three
Houston is our first new city of the '80s
Barely two weeks into the new year and the
new decade, Piedmont inaugurated the Com
pany’s first service to Houston, Texas.
A week before the nonstop flights between
the fastest-growing city in Texas — maybe in
the whole U.S. — and the Carolinas, Piedmont
hosted a party for nearly 500 of its travel-
W. L. Brackley, director of Houston’s Depart
ment of Aviation, chatted with President Davis
at the Company’s party at the Houston Oaks.
Travel agents, from left, Gloria Patt, Janet IVIc-
Ewan and Anita Reiner, helped President Davis
blow out the candles and cut the cake in cele
bration of Piedmont’s arrival at I AH.
conscious friends in the West. If the warmth
of their welcome is any indication, lAH will
soon be a very important city on the Piedmont
system.
Some observations from some first-time
visitors to Houston . . . It’s big! Word was the
diameter of the city from city limit to furthest
city limit is 64 miles. We believe it. The air
port is equally enormous. It even has its own
radio station, with road signs telling where to
dial on your am radio for current information
on which parking lots have space available. And
you can’t even see from one parking lot to an
other. They’re a long ways apart. Upon arrival,
you head downtown and ride and ride and just
when you think you can’t be far from the city,
you look up to see a billboard saying, “You’re
now leaving the Houston Intercontinental Air
port.”
From the untold miles of expressways, you
see a city that must be an architect’s heaven.
The landscape of buildings displays imagination
Mother Nature could envy.
Houston is a cosmopolitan, but far from
cold, city. It’s fascinating, from the ships to
the cowboys and sheiks on the streets. You
never forget what is producing its prosperity.
Perhaps only Winston-Salem residents who’ve
grown accustomed to first-time visitors saying,
“It really smells like tobacco here . . .” will
I
Traditional ribbon-cutting ceremonies in Char
lotte marked the January 15th inaugural of the
Queen City’s only nonstop service to Houston.
Mayor Pro Tem Betty Chafin, left, and Airport
Manager Josh Birmingham, right, wielded the
scissors with a little help from Piedmont’s Bill
McGee, center.
notice that Houston really does have an air of
oil about it. It is in no way an unpleasant air;
rather, it seems very appropriate. The service
station price signs at first appear nostalgic,
but then you remember where you are.
Houston — an exciting new Piedmont desti
nation you should plan to see, soon!
Senior Vice President Ken Ross, left, congratu
lated Piedmont’s new Houston Station Man
ager Jim Bailey during the reception.
I
Proper party attire in Houston ranges from cow
boy hats and turbans to three-piece business
suits. Piedmont’s District Sales Manager Jim
Sheets, center, is shown here with travel agents
Lee Eguia, left, and Nick Singhnarula, right.
Continental’s Regional Vice President Jack
Russell, left, and Regional Interline Man
ager Paul Glaab, right, were also on hand
to welcome Davis and the No. 1 Airline
In The Middle East.
Texas International President Frank Lorenzo, third from
left, extended a warm Texas welcome to Piedmont
executives Bill Howard, Zeke Saunders and Tom Davis
during the Company’s first official function in Houston.
Among the familiar faces seen at the Hous
ton opening festivities were, from left, Bill
McGee, Evelyn and Jack Brandon, for
merly of Winston, now in Dallas, and Mike
Plummer, from Atlanta.