around
ne industry
On September 7. United began one nonstop, daily
roundtrip in the San Diego-Portland and San Diego-
Seattle markets. The airline will also increase service in
the San Diego-San Francisco market from five to six non
stop, roundtrips. United currently offers one-stop and
connecting service in the San Diego-Portland and San
Diego-Seattle markets. USAir offers one one-stop round-
trip plus connections between San Diego and Portland,
and four northbound and two southbound one-stop
flights between San Diego and Seattle. USAir serves San
Diego-San Francisco with 11 nonstop, daily roundtrips.
* * *
Boeing recently established a one-year new aircraft
order record when Sweden's Linjeflyg ordered six new
737-500s. This brought to 466 Boeing’s orders for the
year, which topped the old mark of 461 set in 1978. Com
bined value of the 1988 Boeing orders is more than $20
billion. Included is USAir’s order for 50 737 jetliners
placed earlier this year. Boeing said it has received a total
of 6,557 orders for new jet transports to date. The manu
facturer also projects a five percent yearly growth in air
travel to the year 2005, which is expected to result in the
delivery of more than 7,400 new jet transports by that
date.
American hopes to start daily nonstop service from
Raleigh-Durham to Cancun and Cozumel on Mexico’s
Yucatan Peninsula as early as November 10, subject to
government approval. The flight would originate in New
York City. American will also inaugurate service between
Raleigh-Durham and both Albany, NY, and Greenville/
Spartanburg, SC, and add a second daily nonstop to and
from Kennedy International Airport in New York on Octo
ber 1. The added service will give American a total of 110
flights a day to 41 destinations at the Raleigh/Durham
hub.
Major improvements are slated for Kansas City Inter
national (MCI) airport following voter approval of the issu
ance of $330 million in airport revenue bonds. Issuing
the bonds will result in construction of a new 9,500-foot
runway, two new parking garages, improvements on
three existing terminals, and future construction on a
fourth. The revenue bonds also will finance future land
acquisitions. MCI, with more than 8,700 acres, has room
to expand.
Approval of the bonds follows the recent decision by
Braniff, which retains its largest hub in Kansas City, to in
crease its service there. Piedmont will inaugurate new
service to Kansas City on November 1 with three daily
nonstop, roundtrips between MCI and CLT. On the same
date, USAir will add daily nonstop service from MCI to
LAX, USAir currently operates six daily flights at MCI,
offering nonstop service to PIT, STL and ICT.
* * *
Charlotte/Douglas International Airport is receiving a
federal grant of $1.34 million to help in construction of a
new taxiway and other improvements. Contracts for the
work will be awarded this fall.
* *
Preliminary plans for extensive renovations and ex
pansion of Terminals A and B at Raleigh-Durham Inter
national Airport were recently unveiled. The first phase
calls for an additional building at the south end of Termi
nal A, the $10 million terminal completed in January
1982. The new building will house an additional baggage
claim area, four new gates and another security check
point. Phase two calls for two buildings to be added to the
north end of Terminal B, built in 1955. Up to four gates
will be added there.
Phase three will add one or more buildings to the south
end, where air cargo buildings and the National Guard
are located. The airport authority is nearing a deal that
would allow the air cargo facility to move to the north end
of the airport. The National Guard also is expected to
move eventually.
TOGETHER, WE'LL
SOAR TO NEW HEIGHTS.
m
USAir has placed a $9 million order with
the Jepson Burns Corporation of 'Winston-
Salem to manufacture more than 7,000
airline seats, including first class and
coach seating to be used in 50 new Boeing
737-300 and 737-400 planes that will be
delivered in 1989-91. In addition, Jepson
Burns will provide first class seats for
more than 50 additional Boeing aircraft in
the present USAir fleet. Here, a Jepson
Burns employee steams out wrinkles in
seats for Piedmont’s 737-400s in the final
production process, j
on October 1
number of departures: 1,383
miles flown daily: 521,832
ASMs: 62,966,182
number of aircraft in fleet: 193
average aircraft hop: 377.3 miles
daily block time flown: 1,732 hours
42 minutes
next schedule change: November 1
traffic
Piedmont
Passengers
RPMs (000)
ASMs (000)
Load Factor
August '88
2,443,749
1,223,397
1,917,744
63.79%
August '87
2.227,049
1,038,664
1,646,467
63.08%
Year-to-Date
18,201,643
8,775.235
14,488.251
60.43%
Change
-I- 9.7%
-I-17.8%
16.5%
0.71 pts.
*AU-time company record for passengers, ASMs. and RPMs.
*The Jollowing 15 stations set record enplanements for the month of August: ALB. BWl. BGM,
BUF, CLT. FWA. ISP. LAX. MSP YVL. NAS. LGA. SAN. SFO, and SEA.
*Our seven reservations centers answered 3.170.508 calls in August 1988.
Change
-H 8.3%
-h 15.8%
4- 17.5%
- 0.88 pts.
USAir
Passengers
RPMs (000)
ASMs (000)
Load Factor
August ’88
3,289.090
1.766,607
2,633.850
67.1%
August ’87
2,310,602
1,236,326
1,727,351
71.6%
Change
-1-42.3%
+ 42.9%
+ 52.5%
- 4.5 pts.
Year-to-Date
21,285,621
11,278,349
17,952,578
62.8%
Change
-1-29.3%
4-29.8%
4-37.1%
- 3.6 pts.
*USAlr’s August traffic results include those of PSA which was merged into USAir on April 9.
around
SAi
The Association of Flight Attendants (AFA)
and USAir, with the assistance of the Na
tional Mediation Board, have reached tenta
tive agreement on the transition contract
merging former Pacific Southwest Airlines’
(PSA) flight attendants into the USAir flight
attendant group. In addition, a tentative
agreement was also reached on a new labor
agreement covering all USAir flight atten
dants, which was amendable September 1,
1988, Both agreements are subject to mem
bership ratification. The AFA represents
4,230 flight attendants at USAir, including
961 former PSA employees. Since PSA was
integrated with USAir on April 9, 1988, for
mer PSA flight attendants have been working
under the terms of their former agreement,
* * *
USAir will inaugurate service from Worces
ter, MA, to Pittsburgh on November 1 with
two daily roundtrip flights. Piedmont offers
four daily flights to Worcester from our BWl
hub. Also on November 1, Cleveland service
will get a boost when USAir adds new non
stop roundtrip flights to both Phoenix and
Hartford, USAir offers 54 daily departures
out of Cleveland.
* * *
USAir, in conjunction with Maryland Bank,
N.A., announced a new specialty credit card
designed exclusively for USAir’s Frequent
Traveler Program (FTP) members. The USAir
Classic VISA Card combines the versatility and
worldwide acceptance of VISA with a fre
quent traveler bonus mileage reward system.
One mile will be credited to member’s FTP
accounts for each dollar spent with the card.
* * *
USAir recently was awarded a major por
tion of the California state government’s air
mifeudV
Present'fcuWA
itffiLVtc 'erl
,,inAL ?tirer • 'arj0
tint ' f '
4-
Tb acquaint the industry with the code
change from AL to US, USAir is run
ning the above ad in several travel
publications.
travel volume on the basis of bids submitted
in competition with other carriers. USAir
won 22 of 24 intrastate city pair markets
that are heavily traveled by state government
employees.
* * *
USAir opened its sixth crew base in Phila
delphia in July to cut costs attributable to
dead heading due to the increase in daily jet
departures. On September 1, 155 flight atten
dants and 102 pilots were based there, and
by year end, those numbers should increase
to 300 and 180, respectively. USAir also has
crew bases at LAX, SFO, BOS, PIT, and DCA.
Piedmonitor • September 1988