The Up-And-Coming Airline
3
DAY holds open house
McLean
Swenson
McLean, Swenson promoted
To staff vice presidents
Captain C.D. McLean has been
promoted to staff vice president-
night training, in Operations, and
Peter J. Swenson has been named
staff vice president-pricing and
yield management, in the Market
ing Department. The positions
are new officer positions within
the Company.
McLean joined Piedmont in
1961 as an airframe and power-
plant mechanic. He transferred to
Flight Operations in 1964 and has
served as a first officer, captain,
check airman, and division chief
pilot for both Atlanta and
Charlotte. He has most recently
been director-flight training and
technical support.
In his new position McLean,
who is a graduate of Northrop
University, will be directly
responsible for all ground, simu
lator and flight training for the
Flight Operations Department.
Swenson has been with Pied
mont since 1979 and has most re
cently been director-pricing and
yield management. He holds a
B.A. degree from Upsala College
and a M.B.A. degree with a major
in corporate finance from New
York University Graduate School
of Business.
Prior to joining Piedmont,
Swenson was associated with
David & Dash, Inc., in Miami. He
Piedmont is a sponsor this year of the Pride of Baltimore, a clipper ship that.
since being commissioned in 1977. has logged more than 125.000 miles and
hosted over one million visitors while promoting the city of Baltimore.
This spring the ship began a 20-month voyage to 25 ports in northern and
southern Europe, marking the first time a vessel will tour Europe as an ambas
sador from an American city. As a sponsor (an admiral), Piedmont has a flag
which is hoisted each time the ship sails into a new port
In June, Piedmont and British Airways held a joint presentation in London
aboard the Pride of Baltimore/or travel agencies, the media, and community
leaders.
The Pride of Baltimore can also be seen on our new Baltimore posters.
Over 750 people attended an
open house June 18 at our new
reservations center at Dayton.
The event was sponsored by Pied
mont’s Marketing Department for
travel agents from Dayton and
from the ten midwest destina
tions that feed into Dayton. Also
on hand were local civic leaders
and members of the media.
Approximately 300 travel
agents from the feeder cities tlew
into Dayton during the late after
noon, toured our new reserva
tions facility, enjoyed food and
drink, then departed on the even
ing flights. Five tents were set up
in the employee parking lot to
handle the large group, and su
pervisors and training instructors
conducted tours of the office.
During the festivities an Ameri
can Hag, which had llown over
the Capitol, was presented to
President Bill Howard by Rick
Carney, an aide to Ohio Congress
man Tony Hall. The Hag now Hies
over our new reservations office.
In addition, Gary Blackburn,
manager of the Dayton Reser
vations Center, received an
honorary plaque from the City
of Dayton.
The event was coordinated by
Blackburn, Chuck Allen, district
sales manager at Dayton, and
Wayne Rankin, our Dayton sta
tion manager.
has also had extensive commer
cial banking experience with
banks located in Florida and
New York.
In his new position, Swenson
will have overall responsibility for
the pricing, yield management,
revenue enhancement and tariff
functions of the Marketing
Department.
Also within the Marketing
Department Marilyn Hoppe has
been named director-revenue en
hancement, and Steve Barlow,
director-pricing development.
Matthews named
LEX manager
Creighton Matthews has been
named station manager at Lex
ington (LEX). He joined Piedmont
in 1970 as a part-time agent at
AVL and became full-time in
1973. In 1981 he became a super
visor at CLT and most recently
was customer service manager
at LG A.
Matthews attended the Univer
sity of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill. He replaces A.B. Casey who
recently retired after 34 years
with Piedmont.
around the industry
Look for more and more airlines to be offering the old 'red-eye ' specials in order
to utilize unused aircraft and generate more revenue. PAN AM WORLD AIRWAYS
recently announced all night no frills service for the summer. Unlike EASTERN
that is using Houston for its night flight hub, PAN AM will no( use any single city
as a hub. Company officials indicate the routes will be mostly domestic with some
short haul international runs.
The FAA is holding hearings and may impose a curb on hand luggage which
would be unattractive to passengers Hying PEOPLE EXPRESS who count on
taking carry-on bags instead of paying the PE fee for chcckcd baggage.
Birth announcements for two new airlines — PRESIDENTIAL AIRWAYS, found
ed by former PEOPLE EXPRESS president Harold Pareti, will use the tried and
true low-priced hub and spoke concept once again. The corporate headquarters
will be in Washington D.C. with Washington Dulles Airport as the hub. The first
spoke cities will be Orlando, Pittsburgh, Hartford and Boston.
. . .PRIDE AIR takes off on August 1. A group of former CONTINENTAL em
ployees have formed and financed a new national airline with an initial route
structure that will link eight Western cities with seven cities in Florida. MSY will
be the airline's hub.
Since deregulation in 1978, the airline industry has been almost as exciting and
unpredictable as the stock market. Here are some recent happenings:
. . .Gone are the days of big salaries for beginners. All new union contracts for
flight attendants and pilots include A & B salary scales. New hires are in the B
range and get half as much pay initially as higher seniority employees in the A
range. Reason: the faster airlines grow and hire B's. the faster they cut employee
costs and increase competitiveness.
. . .It's war on the fare front too. Fuel prices may be lower now than when de
regulation began but some fares are still unbelievable. PIEDMONT matched
PEOPLE EXPRESS for a limited time on their special offer of $ 19 from GSO to
EWR and from June 26 to August 6 PI is matching PE on $29 one way fare from
CLT to MCO.
. . On a lesser than two evils type of settlement, TWA employees who feared
a complete management and operation restructuring, watched as unwelcome
takeover specialist Carl Icahn was bought out by Tbxas Air as purchaser of IVans
World Airways. Ti-ans World Corporation, with interests in food, lodging, and real
estate, dropped TWA as a subsidiary in February of 1984. Tfexas Air, a holding
company whose principal units are Continental and New York Air, purchased TWA
in July.
. . .UNITED AIRLINES is alive and kicking stronger than ever after its month
long pilot strike. Not only did they lure back passengers with a 50% rebate on all
fares during the first week of July but their parent company, UAL, Inc.. has been
making moves to build a total travel company and a less vulnerable takeover
target.
Over the past two months UAL paid $750 million for the Pacific routes of Pan
American and $265 million for 30 jets from Frontier Airlines. Then at the end of
June the nation's largest air carrier purchased the nation's largest rental car com
pany. UAL bought Hertz from RCA for $587.5 million in cash. (Not a bad move
since about 80% of car rentals are made by airline passengers and Hertz has
400,000 cars and trucks for use in 120 countries.)
To add to its cash reserves UAL also sold half of its Westin hotels to investors
while still retaining management fees and contracts. So in the end the travel pack
et could offer the same company's services from plane to car to bed.
The recent rash of hijackings will cost airlines millions — at least $30 million in
crew training alone. Political and practical reasons have been bantered back and
forth at recent Senate Commerce Committee hearings. DOT officials supported a
federal requirement for armed marshals aboard certain high risk flights. Thomas
Ashwood, vice-president of the Airline Pilots Association, said, "It doesn't matter
if they are good or bad guns," all firearms on board an aircraft pose a safety threat.
. . .Senator Norman Mineta said that DOT has known for years about security defi
ciencies at the Athens airport and others and done nothing to correct them so now
action must be required. Other legislators moved to give more government monies
to aid in stepped-up training of airline personnel and FAA airport inspectors.