m
Piedmont President and Chief Operating Officer Tbm Schick (above) gave an update on the
progress of the USAir merger at a meeting in DAY with management personnel from sur
rounding stations. Schick and other company officers traveled to CLT and BWI to meet
with the personnel in those areas also. The meetings gave Schick and employees the oppor
tunity to meet and get to know one another.
Above: Schick (left) greets Richard Ryan
(right), station manager-NAS, at the CLT
meeting as Dale Wagner, customer service
manager-NAS, looks on. Wagner opened
the NAS station in November 1987, and
Ryan assumed the station manager duties
in July. Right: Katharine Lfirson (right),
customer service manager-LGA, asks a
question at the DAY meeting as Kim Yard-
lay, personnel manager-DAY, listens.
■
AL changes to US October 1
On October 1, USAir’s two-letter airline
designator changes from AL to US. USAir
Group Chairman and President Ed Colodny
provides some background on the develop
ment of the new designator in the following
editorial column. Viewpoint, which appears
in the September issue of USAir’s inflight
magazine. USAir Magazine.
Some years ago I wrote a Viewpoint col
umn entitled "All You Ever Wanted to Know
About AL.” The reason for the column was
to clear the air on all the abbreviations and
acronyms rife in the air travel industry.
One of the many abbreviations in our in
dustry is the two-letter airline designator as
signed by the International Air Transport
Association (lATA). Each airline has a two-
letter code used for commercial applications,
including scheduling, reservations, and tick
eting. USAir's designator, as 1 explained in
the earlier article, is AL.
In your travels on USAir you may never
have noticed the letters AL. But the two let
ters are omnipresent. They are on your tick
ets, special baggage tags, on travel agent
computerized reservations screens, in the
Official Airline Guide, and more.
In 1979, when we changed our name from
Allegheny to USAir, we considered changing
the two-letter designator as well, to some
thing closer to USAir. Not surprisingly, US
was already taken. It was held by the U.S. Air
Force Military Airlift Command (MAC).
We elected to stay with the familiar AL.
However, early last year, with plans under
way to merge Pacific Southwest Airlines (PS)
into USAir and the planned purchase of
Piedmont Airlines (PI), we decided we should
make another attempt to obtain a two-letter
designator more closely linked with our name.
It was time to renew the quest for US.
We approached the Military Airlift Com
mand which held the US code. They agreed
to relinquish the code if we could arrange an
alternate identifier, such as MC for Military
Charter. The MC code was held by Transtar
Airlines (the former Muse Air!).
As it happened. Transtar was not pleased
with the MC code, and it would relinquish
MC if we could arrange for them to obtain TS
as their code.
TS had been the code for Aloha Airlines,
but had been dropped for AO. The TS code
had reverted to lATA, keeper of the codes, for
a time but had been reassigned to a West
African airline—Tl-ansports Aerien du Benin
T.A.B. that operated a one airplane airline
within the country of Benin.
In our efforts to reach the Benin airline to
see if it would give up TS, we learned the car
rier had ceased operations.
TS was available!
No sooner had we learned that TS was
available, Transtar also ceased operations.
MC was available!
The Military Airlift Command, which had
been highly cooperative during this entire
process, happily assumed the MC code, pav
ing the way for USAir to become US.
So, on October I, we become US. From that
day forward, on the computer screens, in the
Official Airline Guide, in telecommunica
tions, and so forth, USAir is US. USAir Group
subsidiary Piedmont Airlines will remain PI
until the integration with USAir.
Many of you will miss AL, which has served
us well for almost 40 years, but we believe
the new US will eliminate confusion and sig
nify the new airline being created with the
merger of PSA, Piedmont, and USAir.
arouna
Piedmont
On September 7. our fleet will include a total of 189 air
craft. Piedmont currently has 62 737-200s, 42 737-300s,
six 767-200S, 34 Boeing 727-200s, 20 Fokker F28-
1000s, and 25 F28-4000s. USAir has a total of 233 air
craft including 53 737-300s, 23 737-200s, 10 727-200s,
74 DC-9s. 20 BAC 1-lls, 31 MD-80s, and 22 BAe-146s.
Piedmont serves 95 airports/122 cities in 29 states
plus the District of Columbia, Ottawa. Montreal, London,
and Nassau. USAir serves 105 airports in 35 states plus
the District of Columbia, Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto.
» * »
Piedmont's restored DC-3 will be appearing at the
Cleveland National Air Show. Burke Lakefront Airport.
Cleveland. OH. September 3-5: Tennessee Aviation Days,
Smyrna Airport, Smyrna, TN, September 10-11; and
Piedmont Airlines National Balloon Rally, Statesville,
NC. September 16-18.
» * *
As chairperson of Piedmont’s 1988 U.S. Savings Bond
campaign, Doug Smith, manager-employee relations,
reports that the campaign concluded with the highest
participation rate in the company’s history. More than
4,300 employees, 20.2 percent of the total number of em
ployees in the company, are now purchasing savings
bonds through payroll deduction, which is a 288 percent
increase over those participating last year. This amounts
to a total payroll deduction of more than $173,000 per
month.
In addition, 354 of the 1,500 employees who were par
ticipating prior to the campaign increased their deduc
tion amount during the campaign. The participation rate
among USAir employees is about 23 percent.
* * *
Piedmont was recently recognized by the North Caro
lina Eye and Human Tissue Bank at their 37th annual
meeting in Winston-Salem. Leonard Martin, senior vice
president-passenger services; Bob Reed, staff vice
president-stations; and Ti-ula Scott, director-inflight ser
vices, were on hand to accept plaques commending Pied
mont for the many contributions the company and our
employees have made in the air transport of human eye
tissue since 1951.
* * *
Movies appearing on our 767-200 flights during the
month of September include “Big” starring Tom Hanks
on the CLT-LGW, BWI-LAX, and CLT-LAX flights; and
‘‘Big Business” starring Lily Tomlin and Bette Midler on
the LGW-CLT, LAX-BWI, and LAX-CLT flights.
♦ ♦ *
During the month of July, Piedmont opened a new
cargo sales office in Syracuse; a second ticket office in
Winston-Salem at the Sheraton North Hotel; and a third
city ticket office at the Stouffer Harborplace in Baltimore,
MD.
* * *
CCAir, Inc., a Piedmont commuter airline, will expand
its presence in the overnight delivery market. The
Charlotte-based company will purchase the routes of
Atlanta-based Midnite Express, Inc., along with rights to
acquire nine leased aircraft from the company. Midnite
Express subcontracts with larger overnight delivery
companies to carry packages from smaller markets to
their hub airports for sorting and distributing. Midnite
Express currently serves 21 cities in nine states, but none
in the Carolinas.
In the July traffic report, CCAir flew nearly 10.5 million
revenue passenger miles for the month, up 50% from a
year ago.
* * *
Henson, the Piedmont Regional Airline, flew 24.6%
more revenue passenger miles in July than a year ago on
16.6% greater capacity, improving load factor 3.3 points
to 51.3%. Henson boarded 141,988 passengers in July,
20.8% more than last year.
August 1988 • Piedmonitor