Brown retires and Ross is promoted to Senior V. P.
To get an early start on his fishing, to
catch up with a lot of reading and to do some
traveling, Senior Vice President C. Gordon
Brown, Jr. elected to take early retirement.
His plans were announced the latter part of
December by President T. H. Davis who said
“Mr. Brown has played a major and leading
role in the progress of our Company for 26
years. His outstanding ability will be sorely
missed. We have accepted his resignation, ef
fective January 1, 1974, with deep regret.”
Although Brown will no longer be involved
with the day to day operation of the Company
he will continue to serve on the Board of
Directors.
Brown’s responsibilities covered the sales and
traffic areas of Piedmont’s opei’ation.
He joined Piedmont in 1947 after six years
with Eastern Air Lines.
A native of Silex, Missouri, Brown grew up in
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Gordon Brown
Tampa, Florida. He graduated from the Uni
versity of Florida in 1937. While in college he
was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order.
When Brown joined Eastern in 1941 he was
a sales agent. He later became their assistant
to the regional manager in Atlanta.
During the early days of Piedmont’s airline
division Brown assisted in the organization of
stations and personnel and in the Company’s
sales and advertising programs.
Brown was named Assistant Vice President
in 1956. He was promoted to Vice President and
Assistant to the President in 1957. In April
1958 he was elected to the Board of Directors.
He was promoted to Senior Vice President in
1968.
Along with traffic and sales Brown was also
in charge of route development and route pro
ceedings before the Civil Aeronautics Board in
Piedmont’s behalf.
Brown is a member of the National Aviation
Club, the Winston-Salem Chamber of Com
merce, the Winston-Salem Rotary Club and
Forsyth Country Club.
He has been active in numerous airline in
dustry organizations. He is a past president of
the Air Traffic Conference and a former mem
ber of the board of directors of the Airline
Tariff Publishers, Inc.
He has three sons and two grandchildren.
He and his wife Frances live at 2824 Loch
Drive in Winston-Salem.
Ken Ross has been promoted to Senior Vice
President. Formerly Vice President ^—Traffic,
he will assume the responsibilities for the traffic
and sales programs previously under Brown’s
direction.
A native of Nashville, North Carolina, Ross
has been with Piedmont since 1948. He attended
the University of North Carolina and Aero
nautical University in Chicago, Illinois. His
first aviation job was with Trans World Air
lines and he later worked for Eastern and
American Overseas Airlines.
Three years after coming to Piedmont as
station manager at Raleigh-Durham, Ross was
promoted to Assistant Superintendent of Sta
tions and transferred to the home office in
piBomonmm
Winston-Salem. He was named Superintendent
of Stations in 1957 and became General Traffic
Manager in 1966. Ross was promoted to Assist
ant Vice President in 1968. He became Vice
President — Traffic in 1971.
Ross is married to the former Hiawatha
Watts of Canton, North Carolina. They have
two daughters and live on Grandview Club
Road in Pfafftown.
Included in President Davis’ announcement of
Ross’s promotion were the following changes:
Bob Kadlec, promoted to Assistant Vice Presi
dent - Research; Don Shanks named Assistant
Vice President - Customer Services; and Ed
Best, Assistant Vice President - Station Ad
ministration.
Kadlec now reports to Executive Vice Presi
dent W. M. Magruder. Shanks and Best report
to Ross.
Details of these and other changes are on
page two.
\
Ken Ross
October/November/December, 1973
Vol. XXIV, No. 6
Anniversary year ends
with traffic increases
The airline division closed out its 25th an
niversary year with substantial increases in
traffic.
The number of passengers flying the Pace
maker routes in 1973 increased 11.39 per cent
over a year earlier. Boardings totaled 3,525,694
for the 12 months.
Revenue passenger miles were up 13.36 per
cent over 1972 to 994,352,735. This, with
1,987,613,329 available seat miles produced a
load factor of 50.03 per cent for the year 1973.
The increase in available seat miles was 13.44
per cent over 1972’s total.
The statistics for December were 262,053
passengers boarded. Revenue passenger miles
for the month were 82,446,962. The available
seat miles totaled 159,908,655. The passenger
load factor was 51.56 per cent for December.
The financial figures for 1973 are on page
five.
Increased subsidy
rate set by Board
The Civil Aeronautics Board has adopted a
new subsidy class rate (Class Rate VII) for
Piedmont and the seven other regional car
riers.
The new rate is effective July 1, 1973 at an
approximate annual level of $69.5 million. The
carriers have been receiving payments since
July under a temporary rate.
A comparison of the subsidy components of
the Class Rate VII with Class Rate VI indicatas
a reduction in break-even need of $1.9 million;
an increase in return and federal taxes of $3.1
million and $7.7 million respectively and an
increase in ineligible services profit offset of
$4.8 million.
The breakdown by carrier of the anticipated
$69.5 million annual net payments under the
rate formula beginning July 1, 1973, is: Alle
gheny Airlines, $3,358,000; Frontier Airlines,
$12,753,000; Hughes Airwest, $10,563,000;
North Central Airlines, $11,119,000; Ozark
Airlines, $8,156,000; Piedmont Aviation,
$8,244,000; Southern Airways, $7,357,000, and
Texas International Airlines, $7,940,000.
Under the previous rate Piedmont had re
ceived $7,284,000.