Newspapers / Piedmont Aviation Employee Newsletter / Dec. 1, 1982, edition 1 / Page 1
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December 1982 volume 33, number 6 News about Piedmont. The Up-And-Comint^ Airline. Qp(R0Oit SHOWBALL IS mm The Careltnes Roadshow played at every Piedmont location during December, providing em ployees with the opportunity to hearfirst handjrom management about where Piedmont’s been and where the Company’s going. The end result — Operation Snowball, a game plan designed to keep Piedmont in a position ojleader- The Careltnes Roadshow in Charlotte ship despite hard tUney- facing the overall industry and despite the earnest desires ojour competitors to overtake us. ‘You've brought us a long way," said President Bill Howard, “but we need your help to make 1983 another leadership yearfor us." For more on the Roadshow, turn to page 3. On e year ago, I outlined for you our challenge for 1982.1 advised you that It would not be easy. We expected greater com petitive pressures and. In order to meet these pressures success fully, we knew 1982 would require the best every Piedmont employee had to offer. Looking back, I believe you took those words to heart. 1 believe you gave us just that, your very best effort. It would appear from the Information we have available today that 1982 will go down as the second best year In Piedmont’s history. In terms of profitability. While 1 think each of us would prefer to have once again established a record year, a second best year Is a source of significant consolation. Almost any other airline in America would have been more than happy to have had Piedmont's second best year In 1982. Your Company this past year provided Its employees more new aircraft, more new facilities, more new routes than any other airline In the world. You used them well. Today, as we look forward to more growing challenges In 1983, It will be no easier. We will once again be growing far faster than the Industry, and undertaking this growth in difficult times. I am confident that you will set the same strong pace Piedmont people have main tained since our beginning, and meet these challenges as tough, but respectable competitors, giving our customers the diligent and caring .service they have grown to expect from Piedmont. 1 join your President, your Directors, and your Management in wishing each of you the happiest of holidays and a prosper ous New Year. A Growing Piedmont looks ahead to 1983 "The-Up-And-Coming Airline" identity promoted by Piedmont is more than a phrase. The Company is gaining in status within the air line industry at a very rapid pace. During 1982, we have increased our capacity by over 25percent We have carried more passengers more miles than ever before. We’ve added 12 new destinations to our system and have plans to con tinue as pacesetters in the industry in 1983. In the following interview. Presi dent Bill Howard discusses the Company’s development in 1982 and takes a look at the year ahead. Q. What are the primary chal lenges with which we’ll be faced in 1983? A. The challenges will be very sim ilar to 1982’s tests. The biggest change, perhaps, will simply be the scope of our challenges. We will be a larger corporation than a year ago. This means greater opportunities for increased success, and a greater risk of larger loss. A year ago I said 1982 would be considered a suc cess if we made a profit, asked for no salary reductions, and had no layoffs. We will make a profit, al though clearly smaller than 1981 's record performance. We added nearly 1,000jobs, rather than fac ing layoffs. We provided our em ployees with some of the most generous pay increases seen by the industry during the year. In a nut shell. if we can continue our strong growth, earn a profit, avoid layoffs or asking our people to give back part of their salaries. I think we would consider 1983 to be veiy good to us. although based on the increased size of our investment we do need to increase the size of our profits. Q. What role will the overall econ omy play in our 1983plans? A. Our forecasts are not based upon any extreme change in the economy. We’re eissuming that what we’re seeing is what we’ll get. Should the economy improve, then we expect our fortunes to improve correspondingly. We expect to con tinue our expansion, and do so successfully, even if the economy remains relatively flat, Q. Charlotte and Dayton have become very successful hubsfor Piedmont. Charlotte is approach ing 100flights daily and Dayton is at 28. Will we continue to expand these hubs in 1983 at the same pace we did in 1982?Are there plans for adding gates at Charlotte? A. Over the course of the year, our departures grew nearly 30 percent at Charlotte. In six months, we grew 75 percent at Dayton. As the base number of departures expands, it becomes mathematically impossi ble to sustain such percentage growth. Nonetheless, we will add what 1 would characterize as signif icant numbers of flights at both Charlotte and Dayton in the year ahead. We cannot expand the number of gates at Charlotte with out physically disrupting our pres ent capacity. But we are exploring ways to enjoy incremental capacity increases there. Q. Will we be opening another major hub in 1983? A. To answer this question mean ingfully, I must first point out that we will take delivery of another 14 aircraft in 1983. That probably rep resents the greatest percentage of growth of any established airline in the nation. When added to the air craft we accepted in 1982, you can see that we are experiencing tre mendous growth both this year and next year. We have found no more efficient way of absorbing such fleet growth effectively than by devoting new aircraft to the establishment of new hubs. Yes, we expect to open a continued page 6
Piedmont Aviation Employee Newsletter
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Dec. 1, 1982, edition 1
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