PL USAir computer departments consolidated
The USAir Management Information Services
Department and Piedmont’s Computer and Com
munications Services Department are being con
solidated under the direction of Mike Schwab,
USAir's vice president-management information
services.
Department heads reporting to Schwab will be
Joe Abruzzo, senior director-applications; George
Balog, senior director-communications; Alan Best,
senior director-operations: Richard Abruscato,
director-products and services: Henry Meyer,
director-systems and performance; and Sam
Carter, assistant vice president-administration.
Abruzzo, Abruscato and Meyer are employees of
USAir; Balog, Best and Carter, Piedmont.
Additionally, USAir's Bill Reid and Piedmont's
Ed Wright will serve as directors-applications de
velopment, from which Reid will transition to
lead the Pacer systems development function,
and White will eventually take over commercial
systems.
‘People issues’ emphasized
‘‘Five years from now, after we’re through man
aging the integration process, we will be working
for the best airline in the United States. We’re
going to be the best because all of you are going
to make it happen,” Chairman and President
Edwin 1. Colodny told the largest audience ever
at USAir’s annual Management Club’s Presi
dent’s Night.
At the June 10 meeting in Pittsburgh, Colodny
said he wanted “to share where we are as a cor
poration and where we’ll be in the coming
months as we work our way through the Pied
mont integration.”
Emphasizing that the ‘‘people issues” related
to the integration are the most important ones
we face, Colodny said, “Over the next six months
we have a special obligation to do our very best
to deal with these issues. I believe we will man
age our way through these issues by dealing with
them responsibly.”
A second issue Colodny noted was the amount
of financing required to create the new USAir, in
cluding money for 101 new aircraft, the new part
nership in Covia, the higher costs of operating at
the new midfield terminal at Pittsburgh, and con
verting our aircraft to first class.
Other issues Colodny addressed were govern
ment actions towards the airline industry, grow
ing competition, the commuters, and operations
on the West Coast.
USAir committed to BWI, DAY
In a speech in May, Colodny told the Maryland
Chamber of Commerce that USAir and Piedmont
are committed to continued growth at Baltimore/
Washington International Airport and predicted
that “BWI is going to be the combined airline’s
number one traffic-enplaning airport.
‘‘This summer,” he said, ‘‘USAir will move to
Pier D to consolidate operations with Piedmont.
USAir/Piedmont will then occupy 21 of the air
port’s 47 jet gates.”
Colodny said that USAir’s objective is for BWI
to have a 35 percent share of the Baltimore-
Washington region’s travel market, up from the
26 percent share it has today. ‘‘That’s 35 percent
of a much larger traffic level than BWI has to
day,” he said.
However, to achieve that objective, he said, ‘‘the
absolute number one priority is that the airport
complete the parallel runway called for in the
Master Plan. A 7,800-foot parallel runway can be
located completely on existing airport property
and will provide significant improvement as si
multaneous takeoffs and landings will become
possible,” he said, adding that a new runway is
‘‘the preferred solution to the longer-term needs
of BWI.”
In a similar vein, Colodny reiterated the USAir
commitment to maintaining and expanding the
Piedmont hub at Dayton in a recent interview
with the Dayton Daily News.
“The basic commitments we’ve made to Day
ton are to maintain the hub operation there and
to look for opportunities to grow,” he said. ‘‘We’ll
certainly want to explore whether Dayton can
support any additional Texas service. There is no
Phoenix service at the present time, and we’ll
certainly be looking at that. . .(and) service into
the East is very well covered, so the spread is more
service to Florida and the Southwest.”
Volume 39, number 5
767ER flights cleared for shorter London route
Piedmont has received Federal Aviation Admin
istration approval to operate its Boeing 767ERs
on transatlantic operations up to 120 minutes
(approximately 850 nautical miles) from the
nearest airport enroute between Charlotte and
London, a ruling which will permit a reduction
in flying time by up to a half hour per crossing,
and a savings of up to 500,000 gallons of fuel
annually.
Under FAA regulations, absent a specific ex
emption. twin-engine aircraft are required to
never be more than 60 minutes' flying time from
an alternate airport on an overwater flight. Pied
mont’s efficient B767 training and operations
procedures earned the company an initial ex
emption from the regulations last June to oper
ate up to 75 minutes from an airport on its
CLT-LX5W services. Over ensuing months. Pied
mont’s demonstration of safe and efficient B767
operations on the route enabled the company to
seek, and the FAA to approve this latest exemp
tion—the greatest latitude permitted any airline
under government regulations.
‘‘This is a real feather in Piedmont’s cap, and it
couldn't have been accomplished without the
total cooperation of every Piedmont employee in
volved in our B767 training, maintenance and
flight operations departments,” said Captain Fred
Womack, direetor-flight operations and safety.
“It will not only mean shorter flight times be
m.
tween the U.S. and England, it gives us access to
many more alternate transatlantic ‘tracks' so we
can more easily avoid the worst of the North At
lantic winter weather and operate more comfort
able flights for our passengers. It will also result
in significant operational cost reductions for our
company.”
Initial schedule adjustments reflecting the time
savings to flights 160 eastbound and 161 west
bound were made on June 15, the first anniversary
of the inauguration of Piedmont’s transatlantic
service. Both flights depart 10 minutes later than
before, and flight 161 is now scheduled to arrive
20 minutes earlier.
Forming a foursome at The Crosby National
Celebrity Golf Ttournment Eire (1 to r) actor
Efrem Zimbalist; actor and Piedmont spokes
person McLean Stevenson; President and
Chairman Bill McGee; and USAir Group Presi
dent and Chairman Ed Colodny. Zimbalist
was paired with McGee, £ind Stevenson with
Colodny for the best-ball-with-handicap
tournament. The event, held in June at the
Bermuda Run Country Club near Winston-
Salem, drew more than 109,000 spectators
and raised more than $1 million to benefit
drug abuse and education programs through
out the country. Some of the other partici
pants included Kathryn Crosby, Bob Hope,
Julius Irving, Oleg Cassini, Jimmy Dean, Pat
Boone, and North Ceirolina Governor Jim
Martin.