Tally ho! Piedmont
Hunts London route
The Golden Coach leaves Buckinghfim Palace on its way to St. Paul’s Cathedral for
the Queen’s Silver Jubilee service in 1983.
Piedmont, which just
became an international
carrier on May 1 with the
addition of Empire's routes
into Canada, may soon
become a transatlantic
carrier with service to
London.
On July 25, Piedmont
and the City of Charlotte
filed a joint application
with the U.S. Department
of TYansportation to desig
nate Charlotte as a gateway
to London, England, and
Piedmont as the carrier
to operate transatlantic
flights on the route. The
announcement was made
jointly by Bill Howard,
president and chief execu
tive officer, and Harvey
Gantt, mayor of Charlotte.
“We are confident that
Charlotte is the logical
choice to be selected as
the one remaining gate
way point that the United
States is authorized to
name under the existing
bilateral agreement with
the United Kingdom,"
Gantt said. “Piedmont is
also the only logical choice
of carriers to provide this
service from the Charlotte
gateway.’'
Howard added: “If the
Piedmont region deserves
its own European gateway,
then the region can only
be served in its entirety
by an airline with the
broadest presence in the
Piedmont area. Since
'Piedmont' is our name, it
is scarcely surprising that
only Piedmont serves by
far the most commercial
airports in this region.
“And Charlotte has an
airport with outstanding
facilities, such as lengthy
runways, a large, modern
terminal easily expanded,
and existing Customs and
Federal Inspection Services
personnel stationed in tlie
community. No other city
in the region can offer all
of these advantages."
continued page 5
volume 37, number 7 August 1986
Piednnont chooses B-767 for widebody fleet
Piedmont has chosen the Boeing
767-200 Extended Range twin-
engine jet to begin widebody
service, with the first delivery
scheduled in May. The aircraft will
be used on our transcontinental
routes and, if approved by the
Department of Ttansportation, our
proposed Charlotte-London service.
“These widebody aircraft will be
required by us even if we had no
design to operate transatlantic ser
vice between Charlotte and Lon
don," Bill Howard, president and
chief executive officer, said.
“The new widebodies have
medium- to long-range capability
and seat about 220 passengers in
typical mixed class configuration.
The extended range version offers
us the option of profitably operat
ing medium distance routes in
addition to serving routes of more
than 5,000 nautical miles with a
full payload."
The aircraft will be powered by
General Electric CF6-80C2B2
engines rated at 52,500 pounds
thrust.
Piedmont announced July 25
its intentions to buy six of the
advanced Boeing twinjets with
options on six more, with delivery
to begin in May 1987. That same
day we filed a joint application with
the city of Charlotte requesting
that the Department of Ttansporta-
tion designate Charlotte the gate
way to London, and Piedmont, the
carrier to operate the transatlantic
flights.
The Boeing 767 entered commer
cial service in September 1982,
and has become a favorite of both
flight crews and passengers. The
advanced llight deck of this new
widebody features digital elec
tronics that include an Engine
Indicating and Crew Alerting Sys
tem (EICAS) lor superior crew infor
mation and status reports on the
aircraft's performance.
The EICAS has calhodc-ray lube
display units similar to small telcvi
Sion screens that display informa
tion such as llight path guidance,
engine operating parameters, wind
speed, temperature, and olher
performance data that enable
pilots to operate (he aircraft more
efficiently.
p/foma/7r
s^iiEamanr
Piedmont has moved swiftly to fill any voids in
Charlotte air service following an announcement
by Eastern Airlines on July 31 that Eastern will
sharply curtail flights to Charlotte on October 1.
Tb protect the city’s interests. Piedmont
immediately announced it would assume the
leasehold obligations that Eastern is abandoning
at Charlotte.
Piedmont also swiftly announced that it would
add dedly nonstop flights on November 1 be
tween Charlotte and Boston, Chicago, Detroit,
LaGuardia, Neweirk, Philadelphia, Greenville/
Spartanburg, eind ChEU’leston, SC, to protect fre
quencies and service capacities the community
might lose as a result of the Eastern cutbacks.
Piedmont President Bill Howard also said
that Piedmont would not raise fares in Charlotte
on routes where Eastern was withdrawing
service.
“■\Ve believe it would be a breach of faith with
the Charlotte community to increase fares on
the basis of Eastern’s decision,” Howard said. “In
addition, we will still face competition not only
from Eastern but American, Delta, Ozark, Pan
Am, USAir, United, and People Express at Char
lotte—far more airlines than served the commu
nity before deregulation. Our work will clearly
be cut out for us in this important market.”
u
Passengers enjoy twin aisle com
fort with seats in a typical 2-3-2
arrangement in coach class. The
cabin is more than four feet wider
than single aisle Boeing aircraft
such as the 737-200.
Boeing's 767-200 Extended
Range aircraft has twice the range
of any aircraft now in our fleet and
will carry 56 more passengers than
the 727-200, our largest aircraft.
Production of the 767 got under
way July 14, 1978, when United
continued page 5