WE pieomonim
VOLUME IV, NO. 7
APACE WITH THE PACEMAKER
AUGUST, 1961
■■
Management Meeting
Cites Service Goals
President T. H. Davis welcomes Marion Sadler, Vice President and Gen
eral Manager of American Airlines, to Piedmont's management meeting
in Asheville. Mr. Sadler was a featured speaker at the session.
Benefits Added
To Credit Union
The Piedmont Aviation Credit
Union announces increased ben
efits on unsecured loans and
loan renewals.
The amount which can be bor
rowed on loans without co-sign
ers has been raised from the
previous fifty dollar limit to
maximums of one to three hun
dred dollars, depending on the
employee’s seniority.
Personnel who have been with
Piedmont one year may borrow
one hundred dollars; up to three
years, two hundred dollars; up
to five years, two hundred and
fifty dollars; and up to ten years
and over, three hundred dollars.
The time required for renew
al of loans has been shortened.
Formerly loans could not be re
newed until at least half the
time of the note had expired.
Under the new ruling, upon
approval of the Credit Commit
tee, loans can be renewed prior
to this time.
Loar Transferred
General Sales Manager W. G.
McGee announces the transfer
of Paul Loar, District Sales Man
ager, from ColumbuG to Cincin
nati.
Loar attended N e w-
ark Business College
and Ohio State Univer
sity and joined Pied
mont in 1955. He is a
veteran of World War
II, having served with
the U. S. Navy in under-Paul Loar
water demolition.
In Columbus he was a mem
ber of the Chamber of Com
merce, Passenger Club, Trans
portation Club, Sales Executives
Club, Export-Import Club, the
Masons, and the Tri-County Gun
Club.
Loar and his wife and daugh
ter will move to Cincinnati the
latter part of August and will
make their home on Laret Drive
in Western Hills.
Excellent speeches by two avi
ation leaders — Wayne Parrish,
President and Publisher of Am
erican Aviation Publications, and
Marion Sadler, Vice President
and General Manager of Amer
ican Airlines, plus informative
oral presentations by Piedmont’s
management personnel, h i g h -
lighted Piedmont Airlines’ man
agement meeting held recently
at Asheville’s Grove Park Inn.
“How We Can Produce and
Merchandise Better Service” was
the theme of the meeting. Sta
tion managers, department heads
and sales personnel from all ov
er the system offered new sales
and operational concepts and
discussed ways to render more
efficient service to passengers,
and were challenged by the sig
nificant and pointed remarks of
the two invited speakers.
President T. H. Davis opened
the meeting, expressing his
thanks for the suggestions aris
ing from last year’s manage
ment session in Winston-Salem
“The comments you have
brought to your company have
helped make tremendous prog
ress at Piedmont,” he said.
Ideas Aid to Progress
“There are always improve
ments that may be made. I’m
certain we will obtain many
good ideas and constructive aids
from this meeting.”
Mr. Davis termed the session
“a time when we can get togeth-
Blick In New CAB Post
CAB Chairman Alan S. Boyd
announces the appointment of
Collin H. Blick as Chief of the
Field Audits Division of the Of
fice of Carrier Accounts and Sta
tistics to replace W. Fletcher
Lutz, Jr., who was recently
named Deputy Director, Bureau
of Economic Regulation.
Mr. Blick served as Manager
of the San Francisco Regional
Audit Office since coming with
the Board in August 1960. Prior
to that, he served in the U. S.
General Accounting Office as
Regional Manager of the St.
Louis Office since 1952, where
he was responsible for a large
staff of auditors and administra
tive personnel. In addition, Mr.
Blick has had several years of
public accounting experience as
senior auditor in charge of many
large commercial audits.
He was born April 6, 1916 in
(Continued on Page Six)
er and review the past and look
forward to making strides in
the future.”
Problems Discussed
Most of the meeting was given
over to comments and sugges
tions from station managers and
district sales managers on bet
tering service, with specific
problems being discussed per
taining to individual stations as
well as general ideas for a bet
ter sales and service program.
Among the points emphasized
by the group were:
We should give more atten
tion to the following established
company procedures; we should
apply witli more vigor the
“Golden Rule” in customer serv
ice with an eye toward “treat
ing each passenger as we would
like to be treated ourselves;”
and we should work toward su
perior on-time performance with
close study given to the problem
and to all suggested solutions.
Parrish Speaks
Publisher Parrish, in his forth
right speech at a banquet follow
ing the first day of the meet
ing, further underscored the im
portance of the on-time perform
ance by saying that “the only
reason a passenger buys an air
line ticket is because he’s goinp;
somewhere and usually wants to
save time. Reliability and on-
time performance is the essence
of transportation eff i c i e n c y.
Piedmont has made a real effort
Progress Reported on Purchase
Of Martins and Sale of DC-3's
Eye Bank Tlianks
Staff For Help
Piedmont received a written
bouquet recently from “The Eye
Bank for Restoring Sight, Inc.”
for its part in delivering pre
cious eye tissues in time for the
sight-restoring operations.
Wrote Eye Bank Executive
Secretary Mrs. J. R. Morrill, Jr.:
“I would like to express my
appreciation, as a representative
of the North Carolina Eye Bank,
for the courtesies extended to
me by the members of your or
ganization, and for the tremen
dous amount of help that they
have given in assisting in the
transportation of the eyes to
surgeons who are depending on
the Eye Bank for tissue.
“Without the cooperation of
the airlines we would not be
able to get the tissue to the sur
geons within the time that is
required. A mere “thank you”
seems very inadequate, but it is
a very sincere expression of
gratitude.”
Prehminary steps toward the
completion of a contract with
TWA for the purchase of Martin
404’s and parts have been com
pleted, according to President T.
H. Davis.
The necessary documents have
been submitted to the Civil Aero
nautics Board and Piedmont’s
lenders, and it is hoped they will
be approved possibly by Sep
tember 15.
The negotiations involve the
purchase of 17 Martin 404’s from
TWA plus remaining spare
parts, Martin shop and ground
equipment, and a 404 flight sim
ulator trainer.
DC-3 Sale
“We also envision the sale of
14 of our DC-3’s,” said Mr. Davis.
“Because of a deadhne the pur
chaser of our DC-3’s has agreed
to make available on an interim
basis two other DC-3’s formerly
belonging to Alleghany Airlines,
which will handle previous char
ter committments.”
Defense Test Scheduled For October
Britt Is UF Official
Don Britt, Assistant to the
President, has been appointed
Vice Chairman in charge of pub
lic relations for the United Fund
of Forsyth County.
He will assist in the develop
ment and coordination of UF
public relations in the Winston-
Salem and surrounding county
area.
Piedmont carries the eye tis
sue free of charge. Flight At
tendants and station personnel
are all instrumental in trans
porting the containers, which at
their destination are turned over
to the Highway Patrol for im
mediate delivery to the hospital.
Through their joint efforts op
erations can be performed which
give sight to persons who might
otherwise have been doomed to
blindness.
All civilian aircraft will be
grounded from noon to midnight
October 14 as “Operation Sky
Shield II” goes into effect.
The operation is an air de
fense exercise encompassing the
United States and Canada plus
150 miles offshore in the Atlan
tic, Pacific, and the Gulf of
Mexico.
Mock Attack
Invasions from simulated ag
gressor forces will take place
from various directions to test
the efficiency of early warning
and interceptor systems.
The exercise will take place
regardless of weather, and all
non-participating aircraft will be
grounded for the duration of the
test.
Piedmont Plans
Plans for the routing of Pied
mont’s airplanes during “Opera
tion Sky Shield” will be an
nounced at a later date.
to provide ample service to its
markets. Now you must hammer
home on performance.”
Parrish pointed out that the
term “local airline” is no longer
appropriate as applied to airlines
of Piedmont’s size and indicated
that “regional carrier” is more
descriptive and would come into
greater use in the future.
Remarking on airline progress
Parrish said “originally all air
lines were built around the DC-
3. Coming of the DC-6 doomed
trunk systems which had been
built on the DC-3 pattern and
many important mergers took
place. Now jets have again made
a great change, and I forecast
that the next three years will
see a lot of action, with the
smaller jets coming into inter-
mediate-size cties.”
Mr. Sadler, speaking at lunch
eon the second day of the meet
ing, termed the sessions “highly
productive” and offered several
suggestions for improving serv
ice.
Speaking from his vast experi
ence as an airline executive, Sad
ler remarked that “I run an air
line on a day-to-day basis, and
we m\ist do something now to
improve service, sell more seats,
and keep down costs”
“The one thing we can do
most to improve service is to get
our airlines on time.”
Service Ideas
Echoing the sentiments prev
iously expressed by Mr. Parrish,
Sadler emphasized that “time is
what the customer buys.”
“If you will personally con
cern youself with every delay,
and regard it as a personal af
front to you, your airline will
be on time.”
“The first thing you can do is
to think on-time performance. If
you can translate this attitude
to your people, it will work.”
“Look at each customer as
your best friend. Get all your
people to put themselves in his
shoes. If you meet each passen
ger with this attitude, soon he
will become your best friend.”
On cost cutting, Mr. Sadler
recommended that each person
ask himself three things regard
ing any new expenditure:
'(1) Will the expense contrib
ute to the safety of the airline?
(2) Will it increase sales?
(3) Will it result in a reduc
tion elsewhere to make worth
while savings?
The three-day meeting, attend-
(Continued on Page Five)
Can You Top This?
As of August 2, the Washing
ton crew had chalked up a total
of 114 consecutive on-time de
partures.
The “on-time marathon” start
ed July 21 and continued until
the second of August when bad
weather down the line delayed
the arrival of a flight and broke
the DCA winning streak.
Busy airport traffic sometimes
results in delays on getting
flights in the air, but the Wash
ington staff can be justifiably
proud of their record of getting
flights underway on time.
Can any other station top this?
If so, let us know about it.—Ed.