Ooking Back At·Laker Task Force II Moving On

VOLUME 45 NUMBER 6 MARCH 15, 1982 The Latest Headline News! Award of Task Force II_ Excellence MoVing On President Ed Meyer and top com !. pany officials will honor 119 em With its first task behind it- selection of ployees at TWA's annual Award of. the bumping priority system favored by Excellence dinner in New York on most passenger ·service employees. -, April2. The reception will be he)~ at TWA's newly instituted Task Force pro Hilton International's Vista Interna gram is moving on to tackle its next_chore. tional Hotel in the World Trade Five members of the original task force Center. Roster of those selected for served as a transition team to prepare the outstanding individual performance way for the program's continuation. On during 1981 is on page 8. February 24, they met in New York to take the first step in selection of Task Force II's · membership and agree on the area of -.ooking Back concern it will cover. Members of the transition group were · Richard Ebright, customer service agent At·Laker in-charge, CMH; Deborah Irons, reserva Travel Weekly points out that the passing tions agent, S TL; Sandy Torre, from the scene of Laker Airways was reservations agent, LAX; and Jerry Stanhi- . accompanied by a lot of nonsense in the bel, customer service agent, JFK. media perpetrating "myths" about that Their first order of business was to pick operation. locations at random in each of the three One was The New York Times' assertion TWA regions; passenger· service em that "Laker accounted for 25% of all air ployees at those locations will choose, traffic between Britain and America" -a from among those who have volunteered to gross exaggeration, by a factor of five or serve, the representatives who will make so. up the new task force. Myth #2 ·was that Laker was the victim The subject-area of attention selected by of deteriorating recessionary transatlantic These and other industry developments in "Business as Usual?'' on page 3. the transition team, from issues identified travel- although 1981 U.S./U.K. traffic as employees' major concerns in the recent was near its 1980 all-time peak. on the 605 Third staff, New York. passenger service survey: communication. Myth #3 is that Laker, "knight of the Brett Signs On A c·ross-section of employees will be When the various locations have chosen common man", was the low-fare innova seen in the ads. They are cockpit crew their representatives, the new task force tor - but several incumbent carriers had As P-itch-man members Max Callihall!, Charles Elliott, will have its first meeting this month. tried unsuccessfully for years to gain ap In a photography studio converted from Tom McGuire and Stacy Patterson; in These are the locations, by region, proval of fares even more attractive than Old Firehouse #3 in downtown Kansas flight personnel Shewn Hoprich, Pat which will send representatives to Task Skytrain 's only to be thwarted by actions of City, third baseman George Brett of the Brinkman, Judy Gerling and Mary Phil Force II: one government or another. K.C. Royals led 24 TWA "teammates" in lippi~ maintenance supervisor Willis Kir Myth #4 was that Laker developed an a new twist to baseball's annual "rites of choff; mechanics Steve Eppinger, Larry Eastern Central Western entire new market for transatlantic carriers. spring." The batting star will be the hit of a Day and John Stanton;. ramp servjcemen BOSCSA CHI RES DENCSA The facti's that Skytrain, ~md incumbents' TWA ad campaign which breaks locally Bob Watterson, Morry Cox, Sheldon DCACSA ORDCSA LAXCSA competitive responses, grew on what had this week. Chandler and Luke Wright; skycap John MIACSA - CVGCSA LAS CSA formerly been charter traffic - and on Timed to coincide with the advent of the McBride; ticket agent Jill Woods; guard NYC RES KCACCRC SFOCTO traffic cannibalized from other V. S. and 1982 baseball season, the ads will identify Jean Devling; · customer service agents NYCCTO *CMHCSA OKCCSA European gateways before lower competi the hometown's number one ballplayer Denise Miller and Jerry Heavlin; agent-in PITCSA *STLRES *LAX RES · tive fares became available there also. with the hometown's number one airline. charge Marty Larsen; passenger relations *JFKCSA *STLCSA The ads will appear in the Kansas City One More Myth . rep Dick Tubbesing, and Ken Melidoni. *Transition members frorn Task Force I. Star and Times, and will air on radio station To these myths might be added Sir KCMO. Freddie's reputation as a master of market Kansas City account manag~r Ken Meli in g. doni assisted in setting up the promotion. Advertising Age points out that he sad Recording and photo sessions' were di dled himself with a "no-frills" image he rected by Ogilvy & Mather, TWA's adver was never able to shake, even when he was tising agency, and coordinated by Rob ultimately offering as many as five sepa Erlanger, supervisor-passenger marketing rate fare and service levels and calling for fare increases because he was losing money. The established carriers with serv Question Line Off 'Hold' ice reputations retained a large number of The volume of calls to TWA's rumor their regular passengers all along; when addressing Response Line continues they matched Laker's low fares as well·, undiminished. Meanwhile, after an they removed his only credible . selling experimental period . during which point, and captured hi_s passengers as well. the Question Line for employee in Had Taxpayers to Thank put was shut down, that aspect of the Finally, the British publication The two-way system has been reacti Economist observes that for all the bally- vated- limiting questions submit . hoo about Laker as an example of e~trepre- ted to those mailed via Box 605 neurial guts, he was in a real sense a heavily having been deemed, on reflection, subsidized enterprise. Not only his own too cumbersome a mode of dealing government but America's as well pro with the grapevine's faster-blooming vided low-interest loans and guarantees items. worth many millions, in order to help Here are the numbers once again. fi nance his aircraft purchases from British To ask a question , call, toll-free, and American builders. It was partly with (800)· 221-2842, wait for the tone·, such competitive advantages -thanks_to then start talking . In New York , call the taxpayers of the U.S. and U.K. - that 370- 17 14. To reach the Response he was able to offer those bargain fares Line call , toll-free, (800) 2'21-2840. which won him adulation as a champion of In New York, call 370-1713. Kansas City Royals., George Brett goes to bat for TWA. Teamed with the baseball star free enterprise. is a cross-section of TWA "real people." More on page 7. · cycle that could increase TWA's profits. flight ·departed five minutes late with I · ~ Company employees conducting busi The establishment of an East Coast service · positive passholders on board, 11 in first ness on TWA's behalf are also provided that emulates the success of that currently class aild eigpt,in coach. with confirmed reservations. In an over Box605 going on at LAX would certainly justify its Although I had observed a large number . sale condition, they are the first to be asked inception. It would surely yield greater job of uniformed crew members boarding the if they will giveuptheirseats. But TWA, as "ot at Own Expense security to us all if a measurable degree of flight, I do not know whether or not all 19 any other business, must meet commit success is achieved. passholders aboard were crew members ments when conducting or attending meet A recent discussion with ot.ir mainte JosephS. Wahlman returning to domicile or going to Kansas ings, contract negotiations, industry Q, nance manager has led me to believe LGA City to protect a flight or flights scheduled affairs, etc., and the cost of missing these that several OALs at LGA (and, I'm sure, for Sunday departure. The $800 (or what commitments can often be greater than the at JFK and EWR as well) would like to (from C.C. Brown, regional ever) is probably much less than the cost of foregone revenue. For this reason, in each contract maintenance on their fleets in one A director-maintenance, East): The added pay to deadheading crew members if case, we leave it to the discretion of the form or another to TWA. Not long ago, maintenance and engineering department they were denied seats. However, the loss positive space employee to decide if he or JFK routinely performed major mainte in the New York area, which includes of revenue passenger good will is immea she is able. to release a confirmed seat. nance for Olympic and World Airways, as LGA-JFK-EWR, gives serious consider surable and TWA's image must have suf Finally, on the domestic system, TWA well as others. Possibly at that time, ation to every inquiry as to the availability fered tremendously. In this highly refuses an av.erage of only 12 passengers in administration problems outweighed any of our services and facilities for contract competitive atmosphere, I would think every 10,000 carried, or a little more than profits. Now, however, the article in the work. At JFK our maintenance services are revenue passenge.rs should come first ex 50 per day. Thirty-five of these daily February I Skyliner describing LAX's often tied to the OAL's desire to use our cept when crew members must be accom refusals are what we call."volunteers" who success with contract work indicates there passenger terminal, gates and sales and modated to protect other flights.

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