Pan Am clipper, Vol. 12, No. 3, May 1986

              Pan Am Forms Elite Airline Security Unit
With the continuing threat of terrorist activities in Europe and the Middle East, Pan Am has formed an elite special security unit to provide in-depth security measures and highly visible protection for Pan Am’s passengers and crewmembers worldwide. The security unit, called “Alert,” will be operated by Pan Am World Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pan Am Corporation. Details of the new security operation were unveiled by Chairman Ed Acker at the Corporation’s annual meeting in Miami on May 13.
Acker said the security unit will be a model for the rest of the airline industry. The Chairman said the services of Alert would eventually be available to other airlines, both U.S. Domestic and foreign flag, on a contract basis.
“Effective immediately,” Acker said, “we will put into operation a program that will involve the most highly trained detection experts and the most sophisticated equipment available to screen passengers, employees, baggage, airport facilities and aircraft at Pan Am locations around the world.” Acker described the World Services security unit as “unique in commercial aviation”. Pan Am World Services has provided in-depth security services for more than 20 years for a wide range of U.S. Government and military facilities and installations, including Patrick Air Force Base in Florida, which supports the space program and the Navy’s Trident submarine base in Bangor, Washington. At the annual meeting, Acker disclosed that a team of 180 World Services security specialists have been providing Pan Am’s security services at Miami International Airport since last faU.
which normally tend to downplay security risks and methods employed to deal with them.
‘‘Such an approach is no longer acceptable,” said the Chairman, “because it does not recognize the realities of today’s world. Therefore, we are developing marketing programs to support our enhanced security system.”
Acker acknowledged that the continuing concern over terrorism during the peak travel season will have a severe impact on summer traffic levels. The Chairman called it the single most serious crisis facing the airline and travel industries today. He addressed the weakness in current traffic and advance book-
(Continued on p. 10)
PAN AM’S
5
IRELAND
Pan Am Returned To Ireland on April 27 aboard the “Clipper Shannon,” specially named for the gala inaugural flight. Captain John Donahue displayed a small flag with the message “Erin Go Bragh” from the cockpit in a salute to the Irish heritage of many of the crew aboard Clipper 33. Ireland has long been a favorite of many Pan Amers. It is the perfect destination for a Pan Am weekend in Europe. Explore the unexpected pleasures of Ireland in this month’s travel feature on page 6.
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VOL. 12 NO. 3
MAYÀK1NE 1986
CLIPPER
PANAMAC TO BE REPLACED BY AMERICAN SABRE
WorldPass to be Integrated With American AAdvantage
‘ ‘We plan to heighten and strengthen our security at all of our major gateway cities in the U.S. and throughout Europe and the Middle East,” the Chairman said. At all Pan Am locations in the United States, World Services will serve as the airline’s primary security arm. Overseas, where local governments and airport authorities provide primary security services, the Alert program would provide supplemental—even redundant—security measures in support of primary security. Acker said that Pan Am would publicize the new security effort, “making certain aspects highly visible to passengers and to the would-be terrorist. ” It is a major departure from normal philosophies of travel marketing,
Pan Am has entered into an agreement with American Airlines to purchase certain data processing services which will result in replacing Pan Am’s PANAMAC Computer Reservations System and its Departure Control System with American’s SABRE and Passenger Service System. The detailed agreement will be finalized in early June, and within six months SABRE will provide Pan Am’s reservations and DCS functions.
In the January/February edition of CLIPPER, Chief Operating Officer Marty Shugrue said that the biggest challenge facing Pan Am is in the area of computerized reservations and automation.
“Pan Am does not have the tools at its command today to effectively compete with American’s SABRE or United Apollo system. Wfe will take
immediate and direct steps to deal with that,” Shugrue said.
American’s SABRE system is considered to be second to none in the airline industry. It has been a key project of AMR Chairman Robert Crandall, who set out to develop the corporation’s data processing operation into a business service that could be marketed and sold to other companies, airlines among them. Under the letter of intent,
Pan Am becomes the first major airline to log on to the SABRE system as a multi-host.
“The link with American Airlines should not be viewed as a partial merger, the beginning of a merger or even as an alternative to a merger,” said Pan Am Executive Vice President Tony McKinnon. “What exists between Pan Am and
American Airlines is a marketing alliance.” Nor will Pan Am Reservations Agents be replaced as a result of Pan Am joining the SABRE system. “Quite the contrary,” said McKinnon. “We’re giving our reservations people a better tool to work with by giving them SABRE. VSfe still need people to sell Pan Am’s seats to our customers and it’s important that they be our own people.
Ed Gehrlein, Pan Am’s Vice President Information and Marketing Systems, put the technical terms into simpler language. “As a multihost in SABRE, Pan Am will literally occupy a portion of the SABRE system as a permanent resident, making SABRE the Pan Am reservations system. SABRE—for Pan Am’s use—will be
(Continued on p. 5)
Ransome Airlines Joins Pan Am Family
Pan Am Corporation, parent company of Pan American World Airways and Pan Am World Services, acquired the Philadelphia-based Ransome Airlines, a highly successful regional carrier on April 15 th. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Ransome is one of the first “big” regional airlines, founded twenty years ago by J. Dawson Ransome. In 1979 Ransome became the largest commuter airline in the world. In 1980, it was named “Commuter Airline of the Year” by Air Transport World. For a number of years, Ransome was a major part of USAir’s Allegheny commuter network, but severed its Allegheny ties in 1982 to market the Ransome product under its own name over its sizeable network of routes in the northeastern United States where it had developed a loyal passenger following.
Ransome operates a fleet of eight deHavilland Dash-7 and four Nord 262 aircraft. The four-engine Dash-7 seats 50 passengers; the twin-engine Nord seats 26.
It was Ransome's fleet make-up and its 20 years of successful regional management that drew Pan Am Corporation’s attention to the airline. With the loss of Empire Airline’s participation as a Pan Am Express partner, Pan Am realized the need to continue to provide regional feeder service from
The Ransome Pan Am Express Will Serve 17 Cities in the northeastern United States with 125 flights a day. 38 of those will be feeder flights into the JFK WorldPort.
the northeast into the principal international hub at New York’s Kennedy Airport. Operating under the name Ransome Pan Am Express, Ransome will bring about 300 passengers a day into the Pan Am system at Kennedy from cities such as Hartford, Albany, Providence, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Additional flights will provide feeder services between Norfolk and Pan Am’s international hub at Washington-Dulles.
“Three hundred passengers may not seem all that many,” says Neil Effman, Senior Vice President Corporate and Strategic Planning, who directed the Ransome acquisition effort for Pan Am Corporation, “But when you multiply those 300 passengers by 365 days in a year on a round-trip basis, you’re looking at 200,000 passengers a year.” Effman pointed out that the daily feed into JFK is the equivalent of a normal load on a Pan Am 747 Jet Clipper.
Although the airline functions in support of the Pan Am system, Ransome is operated as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pan Am Corporation, separate from Pan Am, the Airline. It is what Neil Effman calls “an arm’s-length relationship,” that
(Continued on p. 2)
New LaGuardia Shuttle Set To Begin In Oct.
Pan Am Corporation will establish a new airline subsidiary that will operate a high frequency, full-service shuttle operation between New York’s LaGuardia Airport and both Boston and Washington, D.C. Service is scheduled to being on October 1. The new airline, which has not yet been named, will essentially replace the shuttle operation that is currently operated by New York Air, a subsidiary of Texas Air Corp. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pan Am Corporation, the new airline will remain separate from Pan American World Airways, with its own management and staff.
The agreement with Pan Am Corporation apparently clears the way for Texas Air to complete its acquisition of Eastern Airlines. Pan Am has dropped its opposition to the Eastem-Texas Air merger, which had been based on the dominance the combined operation would have had in the northeast corridor. It also apparently satisfied the anti-competitive objections raised by the Justice Department, which has also dropped its opposition to the merger.	(Continued on p. 10)
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