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.