CAB extends Piedmont's system north and south
It may not be quite time to pack, but it cer
tainly isn’t too early to start thinking about
what you’d like to take to Miami and/or Bos
ton.
As surely everyone has heard, Piedmont is
going to be serving both cities. The Pacemak
ers should be in Miami by mid-summer. It may
be a little longer before we can put Boston on
the map of routes served.
Boston and Miami have been on Piedmont’s
map of routes proposed; Boston, since July of
last year; Miami, since October, 1977.
In a landmark, or policy-setting, decision
on April 19, 1978, the Civil Aeronautics Board
granted Piedmont’s application to serve Boston
under a show-cause order. Interested parties
were given 30 days to file comments.
Service to Boston will be possible from
many points on Piedmont’s system. The Com
pany’s application included specific requests
for non-stop authority to what will be the
northern-most point on the system from Rich
mond, Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem
and New York/Newark.
The CAB granted Piedmont the authority to
extend its route system south to Miami on
April 20, 1978. This award, which gives the
Company its first entry into the Florida mar
ket, allows operations into Miami on an in
terim basis pending the final outcome of Pied
mont’s request for permanent authority to serve
Miami directly from the Carolinas and points
north.
Initially, Piedmont will operate one daily
round-trip flight to Miami. The jet service will
originate at Baltimore/Washington (BWI). It
will stop in Greensboro/High Point/Winston-
Salem before continuing to Charleston, South
Carolina. The Charleston-Miami service will be
non-stop. There wall be convenient connecting
services between a number of Piedmont cities
and Miami via Charleston.
Additional requests
In January Piedmont filed an application
with the CAB to extend its route authority
westward to St. Louis, Missouri from Louis
ville, Kentucky. The Board recently decided to
investigate the need for additional authority
in this market.
At the end of March the Company petitioned
the Board for authority to provide non-stop air
transportation between Greensboro and Char
lotte, North Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina,
and Tampa, Florida.
Initial plans are to serve these markets with
four round-trip flights a day. When the CAB
approves Piedmont’s application for service to
Tampa/St. Petersburg/Clearwater, Richmond
and Raleigh will be among the cities to get daily
one-stop service in the Tampa market.
Piedmont’s application for Tampa authority
included the Company’s first system-wide low-
fare proposal. Discounts of 30 per cent will be
applicable on all round-trip tickets. The only
requirement for the discount will be a three-day
minimum stay.
In addition. Piedmont announced on April
20, 1978 plans to seek authority from the CAB
to replace Eastern Airline’s service between
Roanoke and Pittsburgh.
Eastern has revealed plans to discontinue
service to Roanoke.
Piedmont and Eastern will file a joint ap
plication seeking replacement of the Eastern
service by Piedmont.
Piedmont will provide greater frequency
than Eastern currently offers Roanoke area
travellers.
Coming
©This summer Piedmont will start a ma
jor mod program on the interiors of the
Boeing 737s. The next issue of the Pied-
monitor will take a look at what’s coming.
0 Piedmont’s shareholders gathered for
their annual meeting in Winston-Salem
on April 19, 1978. A full report of that
meeting- will appear in your next Pied-
monitor.
9 Add ACARS to your in-house alphabet
vocabulary. Piedmont was the first airline
to buy it. Now other carriers are follow
ing suit. What it is and what it does will
be explained in the May-June Piedmonitor.
EJDDD _ HBI
DifH|:i:§o^
I ^ '
We've recloimed ^^number one"
Piedmont made its way back to the top
spot among the local service airlines in the
Consumer Report rankings published by the
Civil Aeronautics Board for January and Feb
ruary.
In January, Piedmont ranked third in the
industry. Delta and Western posted better rec
ords for the first month of the year.
Howard named to new position
William R. Howard was appointed to the
new position of senior vice president and as
sistant to the president in January.
Prior to joining Piedmont, Howard was a
senior vice president of Eastern Airlines.
A native of Wheaton, Wyoming, Howard is
a graduate of George Washington University.
He also holds an LL.B. degree from the George
Washington University Law School.
Howard’s responsibilities at Piedmont in
clude a broad range of corporate activities as
assistant to the president and external indus
try, government and community affairs.
During World War II, Howard received
training from the Royal Air Force in England
William R.
Howard
senior
vice president
and assistant
to the president
In the February report Piedmont was again
the number one local carrier and was num
ber two among all the trunk and local airlines.
Delta kept the top spot. Ozark came in third.
The monthly report published by the Board
ranks the airlines on the basis of the number
of complaint letters per 100,000 passengers en
planed.
and served with the United States Army Air
Force as senior flying control officer in Europe
and the Middle East. Following World War II,
he served on the staff of United States Senator
Hugh Butler in Washington, D. C. from 1947
to 1955.
Howard joined Eastern as an attorney with
the Atlanta law firm of Gambrell, Harlan, Rus
sell and Moye, that company’s general counsel.
He devoted full time to Eastern’s legal affairs,
being based in New York City, from 1956 to
1967.
In 1967, Howard was elected staff vice pres
ident-legal of Eastern. In 1970, he was named
vice president-industry affairs, at which time
he also assumed responsibility for Eastern’s
hotel subsidiaries and its passenger relations.
Howard is a former member of the board
of directors of the Crime Commission of
Greater Miami and chairman of the Dade Coun
ty Red Cross. He has also served as a director
and executive vice president of the Dorado
Beach Hotel Corporation and the Mauna Kea
Beach Hotel Corporation and a director of
Rockresorts, Inc., all affiliates of Eastern Air
lines.
In addition to his airline activities, he owns
and flies his own private airplane. He and his
wife, Lucy, have three sons.
Earnings were besf-ever; dividend declared
Piedmont Aviation, Inc. reported earnings
of $7,495,567, or $2.95 per share, for 1977. This
was an increase of 70 per cent over the earn
ings for 1976 of $4,398,033, or $1.76 per share.
The 1977 earnings were the highest in the
30-year history of the Company. The previous
record year was 1974 when the net income was
$7,047,318, or $2.86 per share.
Gross revenues for the Company were $227,-
966,481 in 1977 compared to $192,053,665 in
1976, an increase of 19 per cent.
Costs and expenses were up 18 per cent
from $186,012,743 in 1976 to $218,955,230 in
1977.
President T. H. Davis attributed the im
provement in earnings primarily to a 9 per cent
traffic growth.
The directors of Piedmont Aviation, Inc. de
clared a cash dividend of six cents (6c) per
share on the Company’s common stock at their
regular quarterly meeting in January.
Paid March 6, 1978 to stockholders of rec
ord on February 17, 1978, this was the 16th
cash dividend to be paid Isy the Company. It
was the first time the Company declared con
secutive quarterly dividends. The directors an
nounced plans to consider the payment of future
dividends on a quarterly basis. Dividend pay
ments had previously been considered semi
annually by Piedmont’s directors.
In the first quarter of 1978 traffic was up
more than 10 per cent over the same period
last year.
Revenue passenger miles were up 10.3 per
cent for the January through March period,
from 256,843,252 in 1977 to 283,244,910 this
year.
Passenger boardings increased 7.6 per cent
for the three months, from 862,216 last year to
927,695 at the end of March, 1978.
The passenger load factor for the first quar
ter of this year was 47.7 per cent. For the same
period last year it was 46.6 per cent.