(1 to r) Doyle Keever, perfor
mance manager for the Char
lotte tower, and supervisors Dan
Campbell and Steve Yancey look
over a ramp sketch while dis
cussing gate parking on Con
courses B and C.
Charlotte tower
a clearinghouse
for operations
4
Controllers al ihe CLT FAA tower
joked that on the first day employ
ees in Piedmont’s tower took over
ramp control, our aircraft would
end up nose-to-nose.
But the Piedmont team has kept
everything running smoothly since
taking over this major function on
March 14. In fact, since these em
ployees began coordinating the en
tire sequence for our aircraft on the
ramp, the procedures have been
completed with barely a hitch. With
over 200 departures daily, that
means guiding up to 19 aircraft
simultaneously which is no small
feat. And those Piedmont experts
have made sure that none of our air
craft has wound up "nose-to-nose."
"There are only three ways in and
out of our gate area, and it can get
really congested," Doyle Keever. per
formance manager who spearheads
theoperation, said. "We work closely
with the FAA tower whose people in
turn do a fantastic job getting our air
craft to and from the ramp.
"The operation is fascinating to
watch, especially on a good day
when things are running smoothly,"
Ramp control is just one of the
tower’s many functions. Just as
AOCC (Airline Operations Control
Center) centralizes all Piedmont
operations from offices in Winston-
Salem. the Charlotte lower, atop
Concourse B, is a central point from
which all CLT operations can rotate.
Working as a team, employees repre
senting all aspects of operations—
maintenance, passenger movement,
catering, fuel, crews, as well as air
craft sequence—work together to
coordinate Piedmont’s CLT service.
"Instead of each group working in
dependently as we did before, we
now rotate everything out of this
department. In turn, dispatch gets
one call instead of numerous calls
from each department," Keever said.
"We’re a clearinghouse for all infor
mation pertinent to our operations."
This team effort is paying off.
"Now, if there’s a need to know
about passenger protection, crews,
fueling, or whatever, we can call one
person to get the information,"
Pierce Swing, manager-passenger
movement, AOCC, explained. 'Time
is of the essence, and we have to
make decisions very quickly. The
tower enables us to make decisions
quicker and often better because all
of the information we need is right
al hand.
■ 'I think the tower is one of the bet
ter things we've done for the hub.
Additionally, the tower has
helped expedite flights in and out
of Charlotte and thus improved the
on-time performance at Piedmont’s
largest hub.
"The presence of the tower, and
particularly the capability of se
quencing aircraft for departures,
has significantly improved our
downline reliability," Jim Tkbor,
manager-system performance, INT,
emphasized.
For example, Tkbor pointed out
that in January 1986, there was a
19 percent difference between the
number of flights that departed the
gates on time from CLT and the ar
rival at the next station. By Janu
ary 1987, that difference had been
reduced to eight percent, and in
March, it dropped to five percent.
"Delays associated with the se
quencing of aircraft have been
reduced substantially because our
people are now in control," Tkbor
said.
Our tower officially opened De
cember 1. The facility had housed
Eastern's ramp coordinators, but
when Eastern cut back its service
at CLT, the tower was closed and
Piedmont quickly negotiated for
the space in addition to the gates
Eastern vacated on Concourse B.
"We had to build from scratch,
fashion out what we thought we
would need," Keever said.
Keever. along with supervisors
Steve Yancey, Dan Campbell, Henry
Butler, and Ronnie Baker; Watson
Furr, station manager: and Noel
Keener, operations manager: looked
at what other airlines with similar
operations had before setting up a
workable plan for Piedmont.
"We have about 40 people working
in the tower, and all of them have
been chosen for their ability to
learn." Keever said. "Everyone here
volunteered. All came up through
the stations and are well-acquainted
A
"jm
{
with how a station operates, so they
have empathy with the agents.”
The tower’s large, open room pro
vides our employees, 12 on each
shift, with a 360 degree view of our
airport operations. Here, people in
maintenance, catering, crews, and
operations, as well as a representa
tive from Lockheed, work closely to
keep Piedmont’s CLT operations
running smoothly. When problems
do arise, they can work together to
find a solution before calling dis
patch in Winston-Salem.
"For several years, we had a staff
of six people following our opera
tions from a small room in opera
tions." Keever said, "but they were
very limited in what they could do.
Our new facility is a real effective
means of getting information out,
and our people are doing a good
job coordinating with one another."
When the major expansion pro
gram at Charlotte is completed by
the end of this year. Piedmont will
begin operations out of a new
tower. An 80-foot-high control
tower will be located over the con
nector between the two concourses,
and we will control all traffic as it
comes into the terminal area to
concourses B and C, and the com
muter concourse. The expansion
will enable us to easily handle 275
to 300 flights daily.
"The present tower provides us
with a proving ground for the new
facility," Keever added. "We’ll know
exactly what we need for future
growth."
Lrae
P
Brenda Barrett, customer ser
vice coordinator, checks for op
tions avedlable for misconnected
passengers.
Scott Westbrook (front) and Tim Cheek (second from front) handle
air-to-ground radio operations. 'Westbrook follows the times of the
various flights while Cheek keeps in contact with the crew of an in
coming aircraft. Besides Cheek is Herbert Padgett, maintenance
supervisor.
Piedmonitor • April 1987