February 1982
volume 33, r^umber 1
News about Piedmont. The Up-And-Coming Airline.
Protecting jobs, wages
Top Piedmont's '82 goals
Piedmont Airlines’ plans for 1982
will center around three vital goals.
President William R Howard said
the Company will consider the year
a success if it achieves:
— No layoffs.
— No wage freezes.
— Profitability.
“After our fine year in 1981, those
goals may seem very simple,” How
ard said. "But the facts of life are
that perhaps no more than a hand
ful of airlines may get through 1982
and reach all three of these very
simple goals. We want Piedmont to
be among them."
What are the hurdles Piedmont
must overcome to achieve these
goals?
First, the industry seems deter
mined that lower fares are the only
answer to the problems of declining
sales or declining market share.
Fare wars raged all winter in the
industry between the Northeastern
U.S. and Florida. Similar fare wars
have already been announced
between the East Coast and Cali
fornia as summer approaches.
fare wars
“There is simply no way we can
wholly shield Piedmont from the
effects of such fare wars," Howard
said. “We have tried to put our
emphasis on markets with the least
exposure to such strategies. But we
have to realistically expect some
spillover to our system.”
He also emphasized that Pied
mont will not yield important
on the inside
• Employees receive crisp S100
bills for their outstanding per
formance in 1981. Thank yous,
page 3.
• And the race is on! NASCAR
notes, page 5.
• New flight attendant uniforms
are first class. Modeling, page 6.
• On-time in'82 depends on you.
Page 7 for details.
• Piedmont spreads its wings to
the Ohio Valley. Story, page 8.
• Frequent flyers to have home
away from home in Piedmont's
President's Suite. New service,
page 9.
markets to airline discounters, nor
expect passengers to pay a pre
mium to fly on comparable Pied
mont flights.
"But the bottom line remains the
same. To be competitive in an
industry which is turning to lower
prices will, in turn, tend to depress
the revenues we would normally
expect from our passengers in
1982," Howard said.
rising cost
He pointed out that costs will still
rise, although we will make every
effort to control them.
"We are concerned that our prof
itability will shrink quickly once it
is caught between rising costs and
static, or lower, fares," Howard said.
Piedmont can also expect to work
harder for traffic growth, particu
larly during the first half of 1982.
“We are very proud of our 1981
achievements, and righdy so,"
Howard said. “Our load factor grew
from about 52 percent to 58 per
cent. I don’t believe any of us, even
the most wildly optimistic, would
expect our load factor to grow
another six points in 1982. That
would place it at 64 percent.”
Piedmont does expect to grow in
1982 and will have about 24 per
cent more capacity in available seat
miles than we offered in 1981. The
Company will take delivery of four
more B727-200's and 10 more new
B737-200’s between nowand the
end of the year.
“Piedmont has the plans In place
to utilize these aircraft. We are
aware of the reduced air traffic con
trol capacity, and we are scheduling
very carefully because of that prob
lem,” Howard said.
soft economy
“But more passengers will not be
easy to find. The economy is soft.
We’ve seen other airlines fail to fill
their seats at ridiculously low
prices. Indeed, the largest discount
airline of all is today a victim of
bankruptcy. For us to fill our new
capacity, we must work harder and
smarter,” Howard said.
That also happens to be a tradi
tion among Piedmont’s people, he
pointed out.
If there has been a real tragedy of
continued on page 4
available seat miles
(000)
passenger miles
\0
net income
Revenue passenger miles... available seat miles... loadjactor...
earnings.. . passengers... cargo ton miles... reservations calls...
complimentary letters.. . In virtually every area. Piedmont has set the
pace in 1981 breaking all previous records by leaps and bounds.
These charts illustrate Piedmont's phenomonal growth since deregu
lation of the airline industry October 24.1978. Net income for 1981 is
almost equal to earnings for the three previous years combined The
number of passengers carried has increased by over 58 percent since
1978. ASMs have doubled while RPMs are up 125 percent.
In 1981. Piedmont excelled in many categories. For example, the air
line received 23 percentfewer complaints per 10,000passengers and 2.4
percent more compliments. The number of reservations calls increased
by 45 percent to over 11 million. Cargo ton miles rose 32percent with
U.S. Mail showing a 67percent increase.
Deregulation has offered Piedmont the opportunity to improve the
route structure through careful selection of new routes,flexibility to
withdrawfrom unprofitable markets, and the ability to actjustfares.
Piedmont's strategies in this new, deregulated market have paid off.
Success in 1982 will depend on a commitmentfrom each employee to
continue to provide the best service possible.