me pteamonmm VOL. VIII, NO. 1 APACE WITH THE PACEMAKER JANUARY, 1965 President Reveals Prospects for 1965 Ed. Note: Recently, President T. H. Davis was asked several repre sentative questions about the Com pany’s plans for the coming year. Here are the answers that evolved from the discussion. Q. What new firsts can ’65 bring in the light of the many achievements of 1964? A. We’ve already had one first. We started the New Year off right w^hen on Sunday, January 3, we operated over a million passenger miles. That’s the most we’ve ever carried in one day. As to other new firsts, I be lieve we will continue to set new records. Piedmont’s slogan, you know, is “Piedmont Sets the Pace!” The New Year will offer opportunities to set new records right on through the year. There is one area of advance in which I believe we need to make greater progress than we have in the past: that is toward further reduction of subsidy re quirements. It’s clear there is going to be continued pressure for subsidy reduction. Although Piedmont has always been one of the lowest in subsidy need per plane mile of service of any of the local service carriers, much progress still remains to be made. Q. Do you anticipate that the cash dividend declared in Oc tober, 1964, will be repeated in 1965? A. When our Board establish ed the dividend policy, it did so in the hope and expectation that we would continue to have suf ficient revenue and conduct our affairs so that a cash dividend could be continued on a regular basis. This of course depends on how good a job we do in gene rating additional revenue and controlling costs. Q. The company now has about 1,700,000 shares of stock outstanding. Ifi your opinion, will this figure increase much during the coming year? A. No additional stock issue is anticipated. Q. Do we plan to purchase any new aircraft? If so, what kind? A. We do plan to purchase one additional Martin 404 which would give us a fleet of 24 Mar tin 404 Pacemakers and 8 F-27 prop jet Pacemakers, one of the largest and most modern fleets of all the local service airlines in the country. Traffic developments the first part of the year will determine whether additional aircraft are indicated. Q. Do you anticipate any new '64 Tops All Records 1964 was undoubtably the biggest year yet in Piedmont’s history. Systemwide, passenger traffic increased 12 per cent— from 895,485 last year to 1,073,004 in 1964. Air freight increased 30 per cent from 5,497,298 lbs. carried in 1963 to 7,124,419 lbs. in 1964. Air mail increased 20 per cent to 4,827,170 lbs. carried in 1964, and air express increased 10 per cent to 4,631,843 lbs. for the last year. The five stations boarding the greatest number of pas sengers in 1964 were Washington, boarding 180,681 passengers, Roanoke, boarding 95,967, Atlanta, boarding 78,917, Tri Cities, boarding 67,299, and Cincinnati, boarding 61,774. With one exception, all stations increased their boardings over the 1963 figures. All but six stations had a 10 per cent increase or better, and 19 stations had at least a 20 per cent increase. Following are the nine stations that in 1964 had the great est per cent of increase in boardings over last year; NEW BERN "" Passenger boardings increased 57 per cent over the previous year. Total boardings were 21,309 pas sengers as compared to 13,551 in 1963. FLORENCE “ Boardings were up 54 per cent from 5636 boarded in 1963 to 8706 in 1964. FAYETTEVILLE “ 1964 boardings reached 36,765 pas sengers in 1964 as compared to 25,215 in 1963. This represents an increase of 46 per cent. NORFOLK —ORF boardings went to 38,146 passengers as compared to 26,449 in 1963, an increase of 44 per cent. AUGUSTA ” AGS topped its 1963 figures by 43 per cent, increasing boardings from 5,798 in 1963 to 8,268 in 1964. BECKLEY “ Boardings increased 42 per cent over the previous year. Total 1964 boardings were 3,070 passengers as compared to 2,155 passengers boarded in 1963. LONDON-CORBIN "■ Boardings were up 35 per cent from 1,747 in 1963 to 2,352 in 1964. GOLDSBORO — Boardings increased 34 per cent over the previous year. Total 1964 boardings were 3,762 passen gers as compared to 2,815 in 1963. SOUTHERN PINES ~ SOP also had a 34 per cent increase, with 1,421 boardings in 1964 as compared to 1,060 in 1963. President Davis talks informally about problems and prospects tor the coming year. instrument or accessory equip ment in 1965? A. Yes. We will be equipping our aircraft with Transponders. This is a unit that makes posi tive aircraft identification avail able to ground radar controllers and should help cut down on air traffic control delays. Q. How long will it be until action is talien on our current route applications? A. It’s extremely difficult to tell about the present status of the route applications that we have pending. They have not reached the point on the CAB’s docket that we could expect any final action during 1965. Q. Will there be any marked increase in the number of per sonnel employed by the com pany.? A. Based on continued traffic trends, we do plan to increase our schedules in the spring. This would of course also require an increase in the number of per sonnel employed by the com pany. Q. Will the intensive ad pro gram begun this year be main tained next year? Are there any plans to increase our advertis ing or to use new approaches? A. Yes, we’ve been very pleased with the current adver tising program and expect to continue it during the coming year. It has been so effective that we don’t plan any new ap proaches at the moment. Q. What part does cargo — mail, express, freight — play in our overall operation? Will any effort be made to increase vol ume in these ai’eas? A. Cargo plays a very impor tant part in our operations con tributing over a million dollars in revenue in 1964. We expect to continue efforts to increase the volume of cargo. Q. To what extent does exec utive overhaul coii+'>’ibute to our overall operation? Is any in crease indicated in this phase of the company? A. This is a very significant source of additional revenue for the company which, of course, results in improved earnings and lower subsidy requirements. Other major benefits of this pro gram are that it provides better stability in the overall level of employment and makes it pos sible for us to justify additional expensive shop equipment which we could not afford other wise. We expect to continue about the same level of exec utive aircraft work. Q. Is it true that an employee may now talse a holiday on his birthday? Also, what is the new regulation concerning two and three week vacation periods? A. Yes, it’s true that each of you may now enjoy a holiday on your birthday. As to the vaca tion periods, the new policy for most ground employees provides two weeks vacation per year for up to ten years of service with the company, and three weeks a year thereafter. Q. Do you expect to construct new facilities at INT or else where on the system? A. The airport commission in Winston-Salem has just com pleted a new general office and flight operations facility which is leased by our Central Pied mont Aero division. No addi tional new facilities are con templated at this time. (Continued on Page Sir) Odum Takes New Post Captain Dwight L. Odum was recently promoted to Division Chief Pilot in Norfolk, Va. He is the first to hold the position since it was discontinued some years ago. Captain Odum has been with Piedmont since 1943, when he was employed as a flight instruc tor. His work with the company was interrupted, however, by a stint with the Air Transport Commission of the United States Air Force from March of 1944 to May of 1946. Odum was again employed by the company, this time by the airline, in April of 1948, and was promoted to Captain the fol lowing year. In his airborne ca reer, he has accumulated ap proximately 17,000 flying hours. Born in Coats, N. C., Odum is married to the former Constance Foxworth. They have one daugh ter, Alison. Captain Odum will remain in Norfolk where he has been based for sixteen years. CAPTAIN D. L. ODUM Piedmont Benefits From New Agreement by Tom Cowan Director—Reservations and Ticketing Service As of December 2, 1964, Pied mont entered into an agreement with Eastern Airlines whereby space control forwards space ad visories on Piedmont Airlines to the Eastern Univac 490 compu ter in addition to all Piedmont stations. This system, which allows Eastern to sell space on Pied mont by obtaining availability from its own computer, was initially set up for the exclusive use of Eastern. However, since nine other airlines, as well as Piedmont, have also entered into the availability storage with Eastern, the program has been expanded to allow any of the participating carriers to obtain availability on any Piedmont flight by asking Eastern for a quote of Piedmont space. Pied mont, in return, can obtain availability on any flight of the other nine airlines or of Eastern by asking Eastern’s computer for a quote of the desired space. The plan is expected to reduce interline phone calls by as much as fifty per cent. It enables Piedmont to give better service to its passengers because, in many instances, confirmation of a passenger’s complete itinerary may be possible at the time of his initial request. The system also allows Pied mont to make seats readily and easily accessable for sale to any of the airlines participating in the program. Besides Eastern and Piedmont, the other car riers involved include American, Allegheny, Braniff, Delta, Mo hawk, National, Southern, Trans World, and United.