North Carolina Newspapers

2 Piedmont around Piedmont Piedmont takes delivery of the fleet’s second and third 737-300s this month. These aircraft will enter service June 1. TWo more 737-SOOs will arrive in June and enter the system July 1. We have been able to speed up delivery on two more 737-300s originally scheduled for delivery in early 1986 so that by December of this year we will have 10 of the new aircraft in our fleet. The first three aircraft are all coach. The next five will have first class sections, and the last two will be all coach. Schedule Highlights We will have 172 departures daily at our CLT hub on the July 1 schedule. In addition to two new nonstop, round-trip flights to MSP (Minneapolis/St. Paul), additional trips will be ad ded to CAE, DTW, EWR, GSR PHL, and BNA. The new service is aimed at building our mid morning and early evening push es at CLT. On the new schedule we will offer 21,722 seats daily at CLT. Our service at CAE has in creased dramatically in recent months. In May we added four nonstop, round-trip flights to EWR. On July 1, a third flight will be added to CLT, increasing the total number of flights daily at CAE to eight. At DTW — where we have one of the best load factors on our sys tem — the new flight to CLT will give this station three nonstop, round-trip flights daily to our largest hub in addition to three BWI trips. On July 1, we will offer over 6,000 seats daily at EWR where we will have 48 departures on the new schedule. GSP will have four daily depar tures, PHL, 15, and BNA, 10 on the new summer schedule. At our BWI hub, we will have 77 daily departures in July (8,570 seats) and CRW’s departures will grow to 13 when this destination is linked to our BWI hub. DAY will remain at 59 depar tures for July (7.472 seats). On July 1, ROA will get a new nonstop, round-trip flight to ORD, increasing departures at ROA to 21. ORD’s departures will rise to 20. * ♦ * Piedmont and Jetstream Inter national, a commuter based in Erie, PA, have entered into a joint airline marketing program. On May 1, the airline inaugurated two flights daily between Erie and Dayton and on June 1, the com muter will add three flights daily between Erie and BWI. Henson will handle Jetstream at BWI and we are handling the commuter’s flights at DAY, Jetstream will con tinue to fly under its own name and colors. On June 1 number of departures: 907 miles flown daily: 332,138 ASMs (available seat miles): 41,047,046 number of aircraft in scheduled service: 110 number of block hours flown daily: 1,023 average aircraft hop: 366 miles Facilities Our new baggage claim area has opened at MYR and the new ticketing lobby is being reno vated and should be completed by July 1. We’re growing again at RDU. We will soon acquire new gate facili ties formerly used by New York Air. By the end of the year we will have three additional loading bridge gates and holdrooms and support areas. This will give us seven gates at RDU. Catering This summer our Catering Department has prepared several delicious new menus for our pas sengers traveling in first class. Passengers can choose from two new dinner groups. The first in cludes filet mignon au poivre, cornish hen, or roast baby lamb Our Avionics Shop at GSO (above) is one of nine Piedmont lo cations to receive a special award from the N.C. Department of Labor for outstanding achieve ment in on-the-job safety. During 1984 the shop, which employs ' over 40 people, accumulated 193,200 man-hours without an in jury. This is the second year in a row the shop has received a safety award. rack. On the second cycle we pro vide filet mignon bordelaise. breast of chicken cordon bleu, or lobster thermidor. For breakfast, passengers in first class can order a Cheddar mushroom omelette meal or sour dough French toast in one cycle and in another cycle, choose between a Swiss and American cheese omelette or baked apple pancake meal. Marketing Piedmont is joining forces with Circus World in Florida, Days Inn, Thrifty Rent-A-Car and the Ar mour Company for a “Family Fun Vacation Sweepstakes.” The pro motion will be featured on the back of every pack of Armour bacon distributed in the Eastern United States. Nineteen trips to Orlando for families of four will be awarded by Piedmont. The 90-day promotion begins in June. We’re promoting our service to Williamsburg in Colorado Springs, CO. This month a trip from DEN to ORF is being award ed following a drawing at a local shopping center. An eight-week promotion is now underway in St. Louis. Piedmont, in conjunction with KEZK-FM, is giving away trips for two to six Piedmont resorts: the Greenbriar, Sea Brook, Kiawah, Hilton Head, Colonial Williamsburg, and Pine- hurst. A similar promotion is planned for Minneapolis/St. Paul. In the recent promotion called “Piedmont Goes West" held in the Raleigh/Durham listening area, over 30,000 postcards were received for drawings for free trips. Other locations to receive awards include AVL, ILM, ISO, RDU Maintenance, and the Avion ics Shop at INT. In addition, three locations in our General Aviation received awards. They are INT- Line Service, INT-Radio, and CLT- Fixed Base. Piedmont people A poster designed by Jim Swartz, director-ground safety, has been selected by the National Safe ty Council for publication in the Council’s April report on 101 More Ideas That Worked. The new poster, entitled “Safety Spoken Here” is now displayed across Piedmont’s system. The center of the poster is blank so that each station can decide what particular safety message needs to be stressed. “The poster is part of our 1985 safety program,” Swartz said. “What we’re striving for is a good, safe, on-time performance throughout the Company.” * * * Piedmont sales managers from Tampa, Miami, Orlando, Jackson ville, Atlanta, Dallas/Ft. Worth, and Houston participated in the ASTA Southern Regional confer ence held in Hollywood, FL, in April. Over 600 travel agents from 12 states attended the conference. The Piedmont jazz quartet and the Pacesetters performed for the trav el agents at a hospitality suite and at the final banquet. In April, reservations set a new record for calls han dled. Our agents at our five reservations centers an swered 2,028,063 calls. We had not anticipated exceed ing the two-million-case mark before June of this year. Traffic Stats April passengers boarded* 1,517,148 revenue passenger miles (RPMs) 678.1 million available seat miles (ASMs) 1.13 billion load factor 60.3% 'new record for a single month First four months + 23.1% -(-25.7% -h 18.8% -I- 3.3 points passengers boarded 5,316,887 -t-21.1% revenue passenger miles (RPMs) 2.41 billion -I-25.6% available seat miles (ASMs) 4.44 billion -t-22.8% load factor 54.4% -1-1.2 poi Cargo Stats (ton miles) April U.S. Mail 1,446,815 - 3.2% Air Freight 1,770,126 -h31.6% Air Express 51,101 -t- 11.4% TOTAL 3,268,042 -t- 13.2% First four months U.S. Mail 5,810,769 - 4.7% Air Freight 6.592,508 + 23.4% Air Express 224,114 + 22.2% TOTAL 12,627,391 + 8.6%