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VOL. XXIII, NO. 2
FEBRUARY, 1972
Newest jet arrives complete with icicles at no extra cost.
Modifications Underway on Additional Jet
“It was a dark and stormy night” to borrow
an opening phrase from one of the better known
aviation commentators, when the latest addition
to Piedmont’s fleet arrived in Winston-Salem.
Snoopy would have approved as the Boeing 737
gently touched down at its new home base
with sparkling icicles glistening on the wings.
The rather worn paint scheme of United Air
Lines will soon be stripped from N9049U to be
replaced with Piedmont’s own version of red,
white and blue.
United sold the airplane to the General Elec
tric Leasing Company and Piedmont has signed
an agreement to lease it from them for ten
years. The agreement also includes an option
for Piedmont to purchase the plane after two
years. This is the first plane Piedmont has
leased since the Company flew the Boeing 727’s
while waiting for the delivery of the 737’s
in 1968. In owning all of its aircraft Piedmont
has been in a unique position in the airline in
dustry, especially among the regional carriers.
Scheduled to go into service the latter part
of April the newest jet’s instrumentation
system wifl be completely modified to Pied
mont’s standards. The interior will also be
redone to conform to the other 12 737’s in the
fleet.
While modifying the aircraft’s instrument
system Piedmont’s maintenance personnel will
also install the McDonnell-Douglas Collision
Avoidance System test equipment. It will be
used for testing and approval purposes by the
Federal Aviation Administration.
For the past several months United has been
testing the CAS equipment in several of their
737’s. They announced satisfactory results
from their trial usage but said they would not
enter into a procurment agreement for the
equipment until the FA A had established stand
ards for it.
Piedmont’s total cost for the new plane in
cluding the modifications to standardize it to
the Company’s specifications is $3.5 million.
Financial Report Shows
Piedmont Aviation, Inc.
Made Money Last Year
Thanks to the General Aviation Division the
Company as a w'hole has reported net earnings
of $383,782 or 17' per share for 1971 as com
pared with a net loss of $2.57 million or $1.17
per share in 1970.
The General Aviation operation generated
a net profit of $824,004 while the airline division
of the Company had a net loss of $440,222 for
last year.
In making the announcement Vice President-
Finance T. W. Morton attributed the improve
ment principally to a 5% traffic growth, the
6% fare increase granted by the Civil Aero
nautics Board in May, 1971, a $2.7 million in
crease in public service revenue and a $658,000
increase in pretax earnings of the Company’s
General Aviation operation.
Total gross revenues were $98.2 million in
1971, a 157o increase over the $85.8 million
in 1970. Total expenses and other costs were
$97.8 million as compared to 88.6 million the
year before, a 10% increase.
Passenger traffic growth during each quarter
ly period in 1971 over the same periods in 1970
were 1%, i7c, 8% and 9% respectively.
The early figures for 1972 are showing irn-
provements in other areas of the Company’s
operations as well. The airline division achiev
ed a 12 traffic in January, 1972 over January
1971. The load factor for the first month of
this year was also up, 7% over last year to
45.01%.
Mechanically speaking the January 1972
statistics further revealed that the on-time
performance of flights operated not more than
15 minutes late was 70.74%.. The mechanical
dispatch reliability was 98.8% for the FH-227’s,
99.2% for the YS-ll’s and 98.3% for the Boe
ing 737’s.
The Company’s common stock which is traded
in the Over-the Counter market was at 10 3/4
bid, 11 1/8 ask at the end of January this year.
Board Allows Deletion
The Civil Aeronautics Board has issued an
oi’der which will allow Piedmont to delete
its service to the New River Valley Airport
serving the cities of Blacksburg, Pulaski and
Radford, Virginia.
The authority granted in the order is
efl'ective April 13, 1972.
The Company had requested the authority
to end service to PSK in 1970 because much
of the area’s traffic was being diverted to
Roanoke.
Final plans for ending the service have not
been worked out yet but an announcement
will be made as soon as possible.
Gifts And Goodies
No more griping all you grouches and groan-
ers! Get out of your glummy gully and gulp
down your grudges. Piedmont has a new glossy,
four-color in fact, gallery of goodies for golfers,
gold (and silver too) gourmets and goers (that’s
you and the passengers too).
You may gorge your good taste without goug
ing your green supply and that’s the gospel
you gluttons. Efl;ective March 1 we will have
joined the group of airlines ofl’ering in-flight
gift catalogues. With everything from golf
accessories to gold filled jewelry you’R find
igoodies to gratify everyone from grannies
to governors.
Gaze, glimpse, glance, gawk or gape at
the glittering array of goods and then gloat
as you order gobs of them, all guaranteed to
gladden even a gift bearing Greek.
We hope you’ve gotten the gist of this some
what garbled message but just in case our goofy
grammar got out of grasp more definite details
have been divulged on page two.
Galore Now Available
Full details for ordering the jewelry can be found on page two.