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August 1985
volume 37 number 7
News about Piedmont. I'he Up-And C'oniin.U Airline
Piedmont Gets Warm Welcome in Florida
On August 1, Piedmont officials
were ready.
That morning at ttie strolte of 11,
nine of our officers, assisted by other
Piedmont representatives, simultane
ously held press conferences across
the state of Florida to announce the
details of our new intrastate air sys
tem that will connect major Florida
cities with all-jet flights beginning
October 1.
The response? Outstanding.
Television cameras whirled, busi
ness writers from area newspapers
were there with notebooks in hand,
and representatives from major radio
stations recorded the announcements.
At Miami, Bill Howard, Piedmont’s
president and chief executive officer,
told the Piedmont story to representa
tives from the media as well as local
city dignitaries.
“October 1 is the first phase of
Piedmont’s three-phase intrastate
expansion in Florida,” Howard said.
“On that date, the company will
add five Florida destinations to the
five we currently serve, expand our
reservations center in Orlando and be
in the process of adding about 1,000
employees in the state. When the in
trastate system is in full operation,
Piedmont will become one of the
largest airlines serving Florida.”
Miami
At MIA, daily departures will
double from the present 14 to 28. We
will have four flights daily from MIA
to Key West (EYW), three to Naples
(APF), three to Gainesville (GNV), and
three to Tkllahassee (TLH). In addi
tion, we will increase our services to
MCO from one to two, and to JAX
from three to four. Service to TPA will
change from three to two and from
TPA two to one.
To handle the increase in service,
we’ll add approximately 40 employees
to this station. In addition, MIA will
be a base for 50 flight attendants.
Kathy Presley, former flight attendant
supervisor at GSO, will be base
manager.
Forty-four people will initially make
up the pilot base at MIA, and we will
open a maintenance station there this
fall. Our Facilities Department is
negotiating for more space to accom
modate our growth.
Mike Blyhe is station manager
at MIA.
Orlando
Don Shanks, vice president-
customer relations, made the an
nouncement at MCO. By October 1,
our reservations center near Orlando
will increase from 106 employees to
KJitujujSUL
Bill Howard, Piedmont’s president and chief executive officer, explains our new services which will begin in Florida O i I
Howard told the Piedmont story to the media and local city dignitaries from the Miami area at a press conference August I.
250, and by spring, we'll have 350
agents taking reservations.
“We will definitely move to a larger
facility by spring and are now negotiat
ing with a number of developers,”
Shanks said.
“We’ve been able to install 15 more
CR'R in our current space, and that
should be adequate until the first of
the year.”
On October 1, the number of flights
at MCO will remain at 12, and the
number of employees at the station,
at 93. Additional service will be added
on the December 15 schedule. Our
station manager at MCO is Kent
Moses, and the manager of the reser
vations center is John Elrod.
Tkmpa
At Tkmpa, Bill McGee, senior vice
president-marketing, told representa
tives from area media that Piedmont
will provide a pattteri^of four daily
round-trip, nonstop flights between
Tkmpa and Jacksonville, and a pat
tern of three daily round-trip, nonstop
flights between Tkmpa and Naples.
“This will be the only jet service by
any airline between Tkmpa and both
Jacksonville and Naples, and will in
crease Piedmont’s total daily depar
tures at Tkmpa International Airport
to 19 daily jet flights,” McGee said.
Initially, the number of employees
we have at TPA will increase from
101 to 130, and we are negotiating for
additional facilities. We will also build
up our maintenance station here to
accomplish non-routine work. Phil
Bostick is station manager at TPA.
Jacksonville
“We will add seven flights at Jack
sonville on October 1 giving us a
total of 20 daily departures,” Lionel
Anders, staff vice president-sales, said
during the II a.m. press conference
on August 1.
On October 1, Piedmont will begin
nonstop service to FLL three times
daily, add three nonstop trips to TPA
giving us four in this market, and in
crease the daily flights to MIA from
four to five. We have just acquired
another gate at JAX and now have
use of four.
The number of employees will re
main at approximately 82. Our JAX
station manager is Don Sutphin.
Daytona Beach
Daytona Beach is the only destina
tion we serve at which a press confer
ence was not held August 1. Our
service will not change at DAB on
October I but will remain at three
flights daily.
We have 17 employees at DAB
where Sue Moore is station manager.
Key West
Gordon Bethune, senior vice
president-operations, announced to
Key West people on hand for the press
conference that we will begin service
there October 1 with four daily
departures.
“We will offer nonstop, round-trip
service from Key West to Miami four
times a day,” Bethune said, “and we
will operate the only jet flights serv
ing this area.”
Richard Reel, who has been with
Piedmont for 12 years, has been
named station manager at EYW. He
has most recently been operations
manager at BOS. Seventeen people
will be employed by Piedmont at this
station.
At EYW, we will have ground level
loading, and will share a holdroom
and gate with Southern Express. We
are having a security system installed
at the airport.
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