September 1985
volume 36, number 8
News about Piedmont. The Up-And-Coming Airline.
PI people lend wings to
United Way campaigns
Piedmont is North Carolina’s
home grown airline, and Pied
mont people are demonstrating
just how much that means. During
the last two weekends in Septem
ber and the first weekend in Oc
tober, 58 United Way flightseeing
trips have been scheduled at the
eight airports we serve in the Tkr
Heel state — all manned by volun
teer employees.
The Company is providing the
aircraft, and United Way agencies
across the state are using the
flights as a centerpiece for attract
ing attention to campaigns
pledged to raise millions of dollars
for community services.
The idea sprang from a group of
Piedmont pilots. Acting as their
spokesman. Captain Robert
Healy (based in CUT) made the
suggestion that Piedmont em
ployees recognize their airline is
being challenged on its home turf
by some of America’s biggest,
most successful airlines.
“Wouldn’t it be a great demon
stration,” Healy asked, ‘‘of just
how closely involved we are in a
home state by providing such
nights.?”
Piedmont President Bill Howard
responded, “Yes!” That, in turn
set off a chain of events.
Station managers at Asheville,
Charlotte, Fayetteville, Greensboro/
High Point/Winston-Salem, Jack
sonville, Kinston, Raleigh/Durham,
and Wilmington have been can
vassed to see if local employees
would volunteer to help, and if air
port officials would cooperate.
The answer; a unanimous yes.
United Way executives in each
city responded enthusiastically.
“I understand that these flights
will raise in the neighborhood of
$58,000 for deserving community
service organizations in North
Carolina,“ Howard said. “We cer
tainly welcome this opportunity.
It is something that, if any of our
major competitors wanted to do
here, they probably could not. It
appears to be good for our com
munities, and good for Piedmont.”
Here are the days flights are
being held at the various airports:
Sept. 21 - Wilmington and Fay
etteville. Sept 22 - Kinston. Sept. 28
- Greensboro. Sept.29 - Charlotte.
Oct. 5 - Jacksonville and Raleigh/
Durham. Oct. 6 - Asheville.
In addition to the stations and
flight personnel, crew schedulers.
U
4^ f
m
CLT Customer Service Manager Jack Kale. Flight Attendant Linda Lezeska (MIA),
and Captain Robert Healy (CLT) are among those volunteering to help raise money for
the United Way in North Carolina.
aircraft routing, and a wide array
of staff people in Winston-Salem
are lending their time and efforts
to the operation.
Each seat on the flightseeing
trips will be sold for $10. Media,
United Way and local officials
have been invited to participate.
We're growing again in Florida
All three of our major hubs
will be linked to Ft. Lauderdale
(FLL) when we begin our second
phase of expansion in Florida
December 15.
We will add two nonstop, round-
trip flights from BWl to FLL, two
from CLT to FLL, and one daily
from DAY to FLL on the new sched
ule. The new services will give our
passengers from 39 destinations we
serve access to southern Florida.
In addition, we will add a fourth
nonstop, round-trip flight from
FLL to JAX. The new services will
boost our departures at FLL from
three to nine.
At JAX, we will initiate service
to EWR with a late evening non
stop, round-trip flight. On the
December 15 schedule, we will
have 22 daily departures at JAX
compared to 20 on the October 1
schedule.
Ft. Lauderdale is the largest
of 28 municipalities in Broward
County and is the seat of county
government. The coast is often
referred to as the “Gold Coast” be
cause over four million tourists
visit the area annually.
“The area is one of the fastest
growing metropolitan areas in the
nation,” Bill Howard, president
and chief executive officer, said.
“Not only is it a Mecca for vaca
tioners, it offers a lively diversity
of people and business. In addi
tion, the Gold Coast is one of
Florida’s fastest growing high-
tech areas.”
With the addition of the CLT
FLL service, our CLT hub will
have 177 daily departures, 21 of
these to Florida destinations.
Departures at BWl will increase to
81 on the December 15 schedule,
eight of these into Florida. In ad
dition to the two nonstop, round-
trip flights to FLL, we will begin
serving Buffalo (BUF) on the
December 15 schedule with two
flights daily to BWl. (See story,
page 2.)
At DAY, we will have 61 flights
daily, seven serving Florida. We
will also add a fourth nonstop,
round-trip flight from Kalamazoo
(AZO) to DAY on December 15.
Our third major phase of
expansion in Florida is set for
January 15 when we will add
more destinations as well as new
services to our intrastate network.
The Piedmont Shuttle. Pages 4 & 5