HELLO PITTSBURGH
HELLO BOSTON
■
Pittsburgh was the first of several new cities Piedmont has said HELLO to this fall. The initial Pacemaker
flight into Pennsylvania was October 25. Roanoke and Pittsburgh community leaders joined Company
officials the day before for a pre-inaugural luncheon highlighted by a spectacular view of the Three
Rivers City. The Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet in the center of Pittsburgh.
Boston became the northernmost point on Piedmont's map on December 1.
To commemorate the day. President T. D. Davis was given a traditional Revere
bowl from Mayor Kevin White. A copy of New England Revisited was present
ed to him by Massport Chairman of the Board Robert Weinberg, at right.
November/December, 1978
Vol. XXIX, No. 5
Thanksgiving holidays
set new traffic records
Passenger boardings for the Thanksgiving
holidays were up more than 14 per cent over
last year, to 63,145 from 55,261, for the Wed-
nesday-through-Sunday period.
Wednesday, November 22, was a record day
with boardings totaling 18,241. The previous
one-day record was June 30, 1978, Friday of
the July 4th holiday weekend.
No-shows may have also set a record this
Thanksgiving. Piedmont’s no-show factor for
the five days was nearly 22 per cent.
Route activity is anything but dormant
The dormant route situation in the airline
business is keeping everyone wide awake these
days.
The media coverage alone has been enough
to prevent sleep. The nearly frantic pace started
with the lines of applicants at the Civil Aero
nautics Board the latter part of October. When
President Carter signed the Airline Deregula
tion Act of 1978, the carriers filed their requests
and then the activity started in earnest.
Piedmont applied for and received the au
thority to operate four nonstop routes held but
not currently used by other airlines. They in
clude Greensboro/High Point-Washington, Ra
leigh/Durham-Washington, Norfolk-Boston and
Louisville-Denver. The Washington authorities
were held by United. Boston-Norfolk was Na
tional’s and Louisville-Denver was TWA’s. The
new flights started December 15, well within the
Board’s 45-day requirement.
In addition to the dormant route awards,
other route news includes the Board’s announce
ment that it would grant Piedmont’s request
for authority to serve Tampa/St. Petersburg/
Clearwater, Florida. The award was made under
the show cause procedure. No objections were
filed within the 30 days allowed. A final order
in the Tampa entry case should be issued in
the first quarter of 1979.
Third quarter dividend and financial results announced
The directors of the Company declared a
cash dividend of 6 cents per share on Piedmont’s
common stock at their regular quarterly meet
ing in October.
Paid December 4, 1978 to stockholders of
record on November 17, this was the fourth
quarterly dividend paid this year. It is the 19th
cash dividend to be paid by the Company. The
December dividend brought the total payments
to shareholders to 24 cents per share this year.
The Company reported net income of
$2,746,456, or 96 cents per share for the third
quarter of 1978. During the same period last
year, Piedmont Aviation, Inc. had net income
of $3,909,255, or $1.55 per share.
Increased expenses, lower average passenger
fares and an increase in income taxes due to less
investment tax credits available in 1978 were
the principal reasons for the decrease in net
earnings.
Gross revenues rose 14 per cent from $62
million in the third quarter of 1977 to $70.8
million in the July-September period this year.
Costs and expenses were $67.9 million this year,
up 17 per cent from the $58 million in the third
quarter of 1977.
For the first nine months of 1978, Piedmont
had net income of $4,524,740 as compared to
$5,684,345 in the same period last year.
The Company’s gross revenues for the nine
months this year were up 19 per cent to $195.8
million from $164.6 million during the same
period of 1977.
Costs and expenses rose 19.7 per cent for
the January-through-September period to
$189.9 million. For the same period of 1977,
costs and expenses totaled $158.6 million.
The Airline Division posted a pretax profit
of $2,086,057 for the third quarter of 1978. The
General Aviation Group and other operations
earned $851,707 before taxes in the same period.
During the third quarter of 1977, the Airline
Division had a profit of $3,338,962 before taxes
and the other operations posted pretax earn
ings of $685,519.
In announcing the third-quarter results.
Senior Vice President T. W. Morton said, “We
have had substantial traffic increases, but
revenues have not increased proportionately
because of the many promotional and excursion
fares introduced by the airline industry during
recent months. In addition, we experienced
certain nonrecurring expenses and substantial
“start up” costs associated with our newly
inaugurated service to Miami and other new
services. Since we do not anticipate additional
nonrecurring expenses and since passenger
revenue yields traditionally improve during the
fourth quarter, prospects appear good for a
satisfactory profit in 1978.”
Airplanes are airplanes. But
when your first brand new one
in nearly ten years arrives,
you get out the cameras anyway.
Just in time for Piedmont's new
service to the north, the New
England Pacemaker was delivered
on October 11. This is the first
of the seven new Boeing 737s
Piedmont has ordered.