Thousands to receive customer service training
Before the integration with USAir is completed
next spring, almost every employee at Piedmont
will have undergone some kind of training in
preparation for the transition to USAir policies
and procedures. Starting in November, more
than 3,200 flight attendants and 9,200 station
personnel will begin their respective training at
locations throughout the system.
It’s a monumental task.
That task is the joint responsibility of desig
nated personnel in Piedmont’s flight attendant
training and station training departments and
USAir’s customer service training department
which handles both flight attendants and station
personnel. In addition, temporary training in
structors are being appointed from within both
companies to handle the vast number of employ
ees in areas such as gate ticketing.
The training will be conducted by teams of two
comprised of one Piedmont and one USAir
instructor.
USAir’s training personnel have been operating
at full speed since 1986 when the acquisition of
Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) was announced.
“We started meeting with the Piedmont train
ing personnel in March of this year. However,
we’ve been working together so much recently
we feel we’re already merged,” said Marcia Rice,
USAir’s director-customer service training.
The two airlines are aiming for a mirror image
date of February 1 so the Federal Aviation Ad
ministration (FAA) can begin its inspections in
anticipation of the actual merger date.
“To reach that goal, we’re starting the flight at
tendant training November 1,’’ said Charlie Cross,
Piedmont’s director-flight attendant training.
Flight attendants will receive three days—or
modules—of classroom training, one day to be
held in November and the second in December
or January. The procedures taught during the
first two modules dealing with such topics as
basic indoctrination, emergency procedures, and
aircraft transition, will be inspected by the FAA.
The third module, to be conducted after Febru
ary 1, will deal with inflight services such as
meals, beverages, and announcements.
“We are committed to deliver the training as - *
close to the mirror image date as possible,’’ said
Rice, “and we’ll delay the training if the date
changes. When the merger date with PSA was
delayed, we had to provide recurrent training.
We’d like to avoid that.”
Training for the 9,200 station personnel—gate
ticketing agents, air cargo agents, operations
agents and ramp agents—will consist of a combi
nation of prerequisite self-study packets,
computer-based lessons, and classroom training
specially designed to meet the needs of the
agents in the four areas.
Classroom training will be conducted in BWl,
CUT, INT, PIT, and SYR and will vary in duration
according to the position. The 450 air cargo
agents will be required to attend only one day of
training sometime in March because of the simi
larity of procedures for the two carriers.
Scheduled to start in November, the training
a
USAir Flight Attendeints (left) Tim Donnally and Phil Quattrone and Piedmont Flight Attendant
Margie Hill are just three of the instructors who will be responsible for conducting merger train
ing for the flight attendants.
for the operations agents, however, will require
four consecutive days of classroom training due
to the complexity of the position. The 750 opera
tions agents who provide information effecting
the gross take-off weight of the aircraft must be
trained by the mirror image February 1 date.
The 4,000 ramp agents will begin training on
such topics as ramp safety and equipment opera
tions in November. The 4,000 ticket counter and
gate agents will start receiving their three-day
classroom training in January.
Each classroom will be equipped with CRTs,
ticket/boarding pass printers and hard copy
printers.
“The DATAMAX ticket/boarding pass printer
currently being used by USAir is an example of
some of the new equipment which will be phased
-into several test stations starting in October,’’ said
Sky Day, Piedmont’s director-training stations.
The printers will initially allow Piedmont ticket
agents to generate a ticket through the CARE-
system but print it out through the DATAMAX
system using formats and ticket stock virtually
identical to USAir’s. All of the printers will be in
stalled and operational by the merger date.
“Eventually, the system will be switched to
USAir's PACER system,” Day said.
Agents will be taught PACER partially through
USAir’s computer-based training program.
EAGLE. Comparable to Piedmont’ SCHOLAR
TEACH, EAGLE simulates every-day situations,
such as building a passenger name record (PNR),
generating a ticket, and booking or canceling a
seat assignment. The program requires the agent
to type in the exact format thus providing the op
portunity to practice in a controlled environment
without affecting the live system.
Ml
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1
“In common cities. Piedmont agents who have
completed the self-study, classroom, and
computer-based training will have an opportu
nity to co-mingle—put their training to use by
actual hands-on experience on the USAir equip
ment,” said Day. “That certainly can help us pre
pare for the merger date.”
Each Piedmont station will have at least one
designated station training coordinator who will
undergo the training for each position and then
return to the station to make sure the agents are
using their training correctly. The coordinators
will also be responsible for maintaining the train
ing records which must be made available for
FAA inspection.
“We have a great deal of training to accomplish
by the merger date,” said Rice, “however, as one
of our video tapes states. . .'We can build this
dream together.’ ”
Cameramen tape USAir customer service agent Janet Plummer in Pittsburgh for videos to be
used for the merger training.
First SYR-TPA
nonstop service
begins Dec. 1
Piedmont will begin daily nonstop round-
trip service between Syracuse, NY, and
Thmpa, FL, with continuing one-stop ser
vice to Ft. Lauderdale, FL, December 1.
The flights, an extension of an existing
Ottawa-Syracuse service, will also provide
convenient same-plane service between the
Canadian city and both Thmpa and Ft. Lau
derdale, via our hub at Syracuse.
Flight 1877 will originate at Ottawa Inter
national Airport daily at 6:15 a.m., and ar
rive at Syracuse at 7 a.m. The new service
will then depart the hub at 7:35 a.m., arrive
nonstop at Thmpa International Airport at
10:16 a.m., and continue on to Ft. Lauder
dale/Hollywood International Airport at 11
a.m., for an 11:50 a.m. arrival there.
The new Northbound service. Flight
1968, will depart Ft. Lauderdale daily at
12:30 p.m., and arrive at Thmpa at 1:20
p.m. The flight will then depart Thmpa at
2 p.m., arrive at Syracuse at 4:40 p.m.,
and continue on from the hub at 5:22
p.m., and arrive at Ottawa 6:05 p.m.
The additional Jet service between Thmpa
and Ft. Lauderdale will become the eighth
Florida Shuttle flight in that market when
it begins on December 1.
All new flights will be operated with 110-
seat Boeing 737-200 twinjets, offering
First Class and coach accommodations.
On the December 1 schedule. Piedmont
will offer 58 daily Jet departures from
Syracuse: 40 from Thmpa; 23 from Fort
Lauderdale; and four from Ottawa.
October 1988 • Piedmonitor