OCTOBER, 1966
THE PIEDMONITOR
PAGE THREE
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CONFERENCE ATTENDANTS — Mr. and Mrs. Art Suffron, at left, talk
over the Montreal sessions with Sheri Folger, G. M. Morris, who is
Interline Sales Development Manager for United and Rube Freeman
Interline Sales Manager for Varig Airlines. Mr. Suffron, who is with
Air Canada, was Conference Co-ordinator.
Interline Sales Managers Conference:
Folger Speaks To Montreal Group
EDITOR’S NOTE; During the course of the recent Interline Sales
Managers Conference in Montreal, Piedmonfs Assistant General Sales
Manager Sheri Folger presented the following answer to this question:
"As major trunk and international carriers bring high density aircraft
into service, how do you see yourself and other local service carriers
contributing to the solution of filling these aircraft?”
In my opinion, the solution to
the problem of local service car
riers filling high density aircraft
of trunk and international car
riers is tine of three parts.
First, we must presuppose that
there is schedule compatibility,
because if there are no connec
tions between us, then there is
no passenger exchange and the
problem is moot.
One would think that it should
be basic to assume that there
would be connections made be
tween the local service carriers
and the trunks; however, this is
not always a true assumption.
For years, the trunks have com
petitively fought for the “magic
hour” departure between the
major cities. As each carrier vied
for a departure at 5:55, 6:00 and
6:05, there developed a problem
of not enough passengers to go
around. Now, instead of sched-
uhng just for the “magic hour,”
if one or two trunks would de
lay their departures long -enough
to assure connections from local
service carriers, they would most
certainly increase their load fac
tors. Therefore, scheduling is the
most important factor in the
solution of local to trunk passen
ger flow.
Passenger Awareness
Second, an effective interline
program should be developed so
that the passenger is aware of
just how he can get to his desti
nation and how simple it is. This
interline program should include:
1. Joint Advertising
2. Employee Education
3. Connection Ease
4. Joint Sales and Marketing
effort
Joint advertising makes pos
sible the association of local serv
ice carriers to a major off-line
destination. For example, one of
our current programs with Delta
stresses the fact that if a cus
tomer wants to fly to Dallas, Los
Angeles, Miami or New Orleans,
he can leave his home town on
Piedmont. The customer now
thinks in terms of starting his
trip on Piedmont regardless of
his ultimate destination. He no
longer thinks of us as being
limited geographically.
Employee Education
Employee education takes
many forms. One of the tried and
proven is the familiarization
trips for sales and service per
sonnel. An adjunct to these trips
are interline contests designed
to make other airlines employ
ees more familiar with your
schedules, connecting points and
tourist interests. It is an
acknowledged fact that anyone
can sell a service or a product if
he is personally familiar with it.
There is no substitute for actual
ly having been somewhere your
self and being able to answer, in
detail, any questions that the
customer might have.
Connection ease is a must in
these days of larger airports and
equipment. It would be futile to
have perfect connections be
tween local service carriers and
trunks only to find that the cus
tomer has to walk one or two
miles between airplanes. There
must be a reasonably close prox
imity between the departure
gates of interline partners.
Immediate Confirmation
Along with this, good customer
service dictates that the airline
must have the ability to get im
mediate confirmation of space to
the customer. To insure a consis
tent flow of passengers between
carriers it becomes increasingly
more important to have and
maintain each other’s space avail
ability. You simply cannot have
the abiUty to ticket the passen
ger all the way to his destina
tion, check his baggage all the
way to his destination, confirm
him a rental car at his destina
tion and in some instances, se
cure him a hotel room at his
destination and then ask him to
wait a day or two for a confir
mation of space.
Joint sales and marketing ef
fort makes possible an exchange
of ideas between carriers so that
each airline’s employees know
what is happening with their in
terline partner. If for example,
there was a national convention
being held in a local service city,
we would notify our trunk part
ners of this and they would con
tact the delegates in their city
to ask them to fly to the conven
tion. The trunks, of course, send
us their convention lists. There
should be a commonness of pro
motions and fares as it would be
difficult, for example, to sell a
family on using family plan if all
the carriers did not have some
type of family plan fare. Joint
sales calls made by local service
and trunk sales representatives
are common practice today and
it helps by giving the customer
the benefit of both of their
knowledge of their specific areas.
And tttird, the single biggest
step taken by the local service
industry to fill the trunk’s air
craft is their new equipment pro
gram. Our move from the DC-3
up through the Martins and Con-
vairs to our new prop jets and
pure jets will mean that, while
yesterday we were delivering to
the trunks a maximum potential
of 30% of their jet aircraft ca
pacity today, we are delivering a
minimum potential of 50 to 90%
Interline Tours
Have Increased
ALITALIA has announced its
“Sunshine Holiday” program for
airline employees, varying from
$49 land portion for a week in
Greece to an African Safari of 13
days at $385 land portion. In
cluding economy excursion New
York-Nairobi and return, a Pied
mont employee can safari for
$583. The Italian flag carrier of
fers other trips including their
“Three Capitals Tour,” including
London, Paris and Rome. More
information of these trips is
available from Alitalia Sales Of
fices.
SABENA offers new positive
space package to Europe. Three
new “Learn to Ski” tours start
at $150. Each will last a week.
The rate includes air transporta
tion, seven-night accomodations
breakfasts and dinners, use of ski
lifts and daily instruction. For
further inquiries write Bert and
Barbara Jensen,, Alpine Ski
Tours, 21603 Pacific Coast High
way, Malibu, Calif.
SWISSAIR has a fall-winter-
spring interline tour offering in
cluding their “Iberian Holiday,”
a 14-day tour of Portugal and
Spain. Contact a Swissair Sales
Office for details.
HILTON Hotels almost with
out exception grant substantial
discounts to airline employees.
Write first for quotation.
TWA is offering three 15-day
Grand Tours. The first is of Eu
rope, the second, of Portugal and
Spain, and the third, England
and Scotland. For further infor
mation write TWA Interline Ad
ventures for Airline Employees,
c/o Globus Tours-Group Voy
agers, Inc., 521 Fifth Avenue,
New York, N. Y. 10017.
SOUTHERN Airways is pro
moting a “Christmas on the
Coast” week-end at the Buena
Vista Hotel on the Mississippi
coast. This is the Tenth Annual
“Christmas on the Coast” outing
for airline employees throughout
the United States. It will be held
at the Buena Vista in Biloxi,
Miss., December 2-4. A $7.50 reg
istration fee includes: two nights
lodging at the Buena Vista (De
cember 2 and 3); Cocktail Recep
tion Saturday, December 3, at
8:30 p.m.; Christmas Buffet and
Dance Saturday night. Checks
for reservations should be made
payable to Buena Vista Hotel,
and mailed to Robert Ward,
Royal Arms, Apartment 16, Miss
issippi City, Miss., 39562. Ward
is Southern Airways’ Station
Manager at Gulfport-Biloxi.
Ward asks that reservations re
quests include arrival time, whe
ther flying in or not, and num
ber in party. Free transportation
will be provided from the air
port to the Buena Vista.
For information on obtaining Non-
Rev and Reduced Rate Passes, see
Anyone Here Named Martin?
by Don Conner
ROA Reporter
A recent Piedmont passenger, who held a reservation on flight
788 (a Martin 404), arrived at the Roanoke airport a little late.
Instead of checking in at the ticket counter, he went running out
to the flight lugging an unusually large suitcase. When stopped
by an Operations agent and informed that he would have to return
to the counter and check his luggage, the passenger became quite
upset and demanded to see a supervisor, who promptly appeared
on the scene.
After further demanding the supervisor’s name, our passenger
began laying down the law to Lead Agent (Don) Martin. The
ensuing commotion eventually attracted the attention of the Cap
tain of flight 788 who subsequently came over and asked what was
going on. Again demanding names, our irate “friend”, had a few
choice words with Capt. (Bill) Martin.
It was finally made clear to the passenger that, no matter
what, he would have to return to the counter and check his suit
case as the carry-on rack could not accommodate it.
Storming up to the counter, our now hysterical traveler de
cided to try one last time by demanding an audience with the
Reservations supervisor on duty, who just happened to be Chief
Agent (R. L.) Martin. Our flabbergasted friend just refused to
believe it all and cancelled his flight on the Martin (404), choosing
to leave the following morning on flight 42, an F-27, with the
hopes that everyone he met that day would not be named Fair
child.
We just didn’t have the heart to tell him to address his bag
gage complaints to Mr. (T. L.) Martin.
DAVE SfA\TH
CRW
ROBERT BEARD
OCA
page six.
Night Owl Flights
Showing Up Well
Effective with the September
1 schedule change, Piedmont has
been offering a series of new
flights to test the market po
tential for middle-of-the-night
airline service. The three flights
initially offered have been label
ed “Night Owl Pacemaker”
flights.
Vice President-Traffic C. G.
TRANSFERS . . .
(Continued from Page One)
of the Lillington Masonic
Lodge and a Boy Scout Commit
tee Chairman.
Bob Bennington
Bob Bennington, Chief Agent
at Florence, has been transferred
to Augusta and promoted to Sta
tion Manager for the Southern
most point on Piedmont’s sys
tem.
A native of Fayetteville, North
Carolina, Bennington graduated
from the public schools there be
fore joining the U. S. Navy
where he served as an Electron
ics Technician at the Naval Air
Technical Training Center in
Memphis.
Bennington joined Piedmont
as a Utility Agent in Fayetteville
in 1954. He was promoted to
lead agent at the same station in
1963. The following year he was
promoted and transferred to
Florence as Chief Agent.
Mrs. Bennington is the former
Catherine Cook of Fayetteville.
I
aware of our responsibility to the
traveling public and to our inter
line trunk partners to keep our
aircraft fleet as modern as the
trunks so that our customers can
expect a safe and comfortable
trip from their home town to
wherever they may be going.
This, then, is how we propose
to meet the challenge of filling
ROBERT BENNINGTON
AGS
With their son, Robert, the Ben-
ningtons are members of the
Westminister Presbyterian
Church in Florence.
our trunk and international in-
of their jet aircraft capacity. The I terline partners high density air-
local service industry is acutely 1 craft.
Brown, Jr., in announcing the
new service, said, “With these
new flights Piedmont is explor
ing what we feel is a market of
passengers, especially military
personnel, who would prefer to
travel late at night. This later
night service is a relatively new
thing for local service airlines.
Piedmont is fortunate in having
a number of military bases on its
system and we constantly try to
improve service for these fre
quent travelers.”
Southbound Flight 823
Piedmont’s new southbound
later night Flight 823 originates
in Washington, D. C., providing
non-stop service to New Bern-
Jacksonville, N. C. From New
Bern the flight continues to
Fayetteville-Fort Bragg, N. C.
Six. days a week the flight con
tinues non-stop to Atlanta, Geor
gia, where it terminates. On Sat
urdays the flight terminates in
Fayetteville.
Also a part of this new pro
gram is Flight 816 offering non
stop northbound service between
Atlanta and Fayetteville-Fort
Bragg.
Most Successful Flight
Thus far, of the three flights
involved, southbound flight 823
operating DCA-EWN-FAY-ATL
has been the most successful.
For the month of September this
flight had a 51.81 per cent load
factor and- averaged 30 passen
gers daily between Washington
and New Bern.
Flight 816, Atlanta-Fayette-
ville, had a 38.64 per cent load
factor and flight 820, Fayette-
ville-Washington, had a 27.01 per
cent load factor.
Director of Schedules Bob Mc-
Alphin said, “We are generally
pleased with the Night Owl
flights for the first month of op
eration and are optimistic for
continued improvement.”