Pan Am clipper, Vol. 12, No. 6, November 1986

              On Time Dependability Soars To Record Levels
For the first time in Pan Am’s recorded history, the airline met or exceeded the corporate on time standard in both September and October. The on time dependability program, which became formalized in January of 1986, established a goal of 75 percent of all flights, systemwide, departing within five minutes of scheduled departure time.
“Iam absolutely thrilled with the professional response from our employees,” said Hans Mirka, Senior Vice President Field Sales and Services, when the October results were finalized. “Our employees have turned Pan Am into an on time airline. And there is no doubt in my mind that our customers are getting the message.” Mirka implemented the departure dependability program after research showed that, above all other aspects of airline service, passengers rate an on time departure far above everything else. “So much of a passenger’s overall perception of an airline is based on making a good first impression,” said Mirka. (Continued onp. 9)
Pan Am Shuttle Official Carrier Of 86 World Series
As The Official Carrier Of The 1986 World Series, The Pan Am Shuttle was in the public limelight from beginning to end. When the New York Mets won the seven-game Series, New York City Mayor Ed Koch presented a special “I Love New York” flag to Captain Roy Carlson to deliver—via the Pan Am shuttle—to Boston Mayor Raymond Flynn. Flynn had earlier agreed to fly the flag in Boston if the Mets won the series. The presentation was made during grand opening ceremonies of the new Pan Am Shuttle terminal at LaGuardia Airport. In the background, from left, are Pan Am Chairman Ed Acker, Shuttle President Bruce Nobles and Jeff Kriendler, Vice President Corporate Communications.	Story on page 5
Shugrue Begins Systemwide Trip To Meet With Pan Am Employees
Many thousands of Pan Amers, in cities across the system, have been taking advantage of the opportunity to hear, first-hand, what Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer Marty Shugrue is calling ‘an internal annual report ’ as he makes personal visits to Pan Am stations around the world. Shugrue is presenting a brief update of what happened to Pan Am—and to its hopes and aspirations—in 1986. And he’s listening to employees’ questions and concerns on all aspects of the company’s operations, what the employees consider positive—and not so positive. Most importantly, he’s providing candid and straight-forward answers to employees’ questions.
‘ ‘This is the first time I have spoken with
you as Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of Pan Am, ’ ’ Shugrue is telling each employee group. Shugrue pledged that more meetings will follow in the future. ‘ ‘I hope that this will be the first of many such sessions—no holds barred—between us,” he said.
The format of the five meetings Shugrue held with employees in Miami is similar to that of every meeting across the system. He opened with short introductory remarks recounting the impacts of terrorism and the Chernobyl nuclear accident and how they affected 1986, a year that Pan Am’s planners and everyone else associated with the travel industry, believed would be a banner year for European travel. ‘ ‘This is not the time or place (Continued on p. 10)
Chief Operating Officer Marty Shugrue held meetings with six different groups of Miami-based Pan Amers over a three-day period at the end of October. Shugrue is presently in the midst of a systemwide tour to make an internal annual report to Pan Am employees. In addition to providing candid answers to employees’ questions, Shugrue is also using the meetings to introduce a program he calls ‘Simply Superior Service’ as the central theme for Pan Am in 1987.
3rd Quarter Profit At 5.5 Million
Pan Am Corporation, parent of Pan American World Airways, reported a third quarter net profit of $5.5 million, compared with a net income of $21.1 million in the third quarter of 1985. The third quarter operating profit for the Corporation was $40.8 million compared with $42.9 million in the same quarter a year ago.
Pan American World Airways, the Corporation’s principal airline subsidiary, posted a
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$36.4 million operating profit in the quarter compared with $40.7 million in the same quarter of 1985. Net income for the airline in the third quarter was $145,000 compared with $19.7 million a year ago.
‘ ‘There is no question that Pan Am spent much of the summer—when traffic was supposed to be at its peak—fighting to overcome the effects of terrorism and the Chernobyl accident,” said Chief Operating Officer Marty Shugrue. ‘ ‘In July, traffic was just beginning to rebound and it took us until the end of August to return to near-normal levels. During the time that we should have been flying full (Continued on p. 12)
Pan Am Shuttle Off To A Flying Start
The sky to the east of LaGuardia Airport had not yet begun to lighten. Sunrise was still more than an hour away. The only light on the new ramp in front of the historic Marine Air Terminal came from mercury vapor lamps that made the whiteness of two A300s and two 727s stand out in the pre-dawn darkness. It was as if they were being spotlighted at center stage, about to perform for the first time. There was a sense that something exciting was about to happen here.
Despite the darkness, the ramp was not quiet. People were in motion everywhere making last minute preparations. Every available hand had been rounded up to walk the new ramp area, shoulder to shoulder, making a last minute sweep looking for any loose construction materials that could be sent flying by jet blast. Fleet Service workers were moving about the aircraft checking and double-checking every minute detail. Airmen and Flight Attendants were walking about familiarizing themselves with new surroundings. Inside the terminal, passenger service leads and agents were setting up a new ticket counter, checking new ICOT Panamac terminals and the Departure Control System to make sure all was in order. Others in the terminal and on the ramp had been there all night; some had gone for several days with next to no sleep working at a feverish pitch to make things ready. Anyone standing inside the new terminal facility would
not be able to tell that a major construction project was still underway. When passengers would begin arriving in another hour, they would not know that the carpeting had been laid only four hours before. What met the eye looked like an airline ready to fly.
It was the beginning of the new Pan Am Shuttle. An entirely new airline had been put together, from scratch, in just 60 days. An in an hour, one A300 and one 727 would light their engines and take off — the Airbus for Boston, the 727 for Washington National. At the same time, another 727 would leave DCA and an Airbus would leave Boston, both bound for LaGuardia — the first of 15 daily round trips that, for the first time, would mean the first honest head-to-head competition in the northeast corridor shuttle market that had been dominated by the Eastern Air Shuttle for more than 25 years. This was Pan Am history about to happen, not unlike that way it has happened so many times for nearly 60 years.
The first light appeared on the horizon asking the darkness of the previous night to stand aside for a new day. The outline of the clouds gave every indication that the weather would be perfect. In a feature article in the previous day’s Wall Street Journal, the reporter wrote that Shuttle President Bruce Nobles was predicting good weather while Eastern was ‘ ‘praying for rain. ” Taxis began to arrive at (Continuedonp. 5)
As The Sun Began To Light The Eastern Sky, The first Pan Am Shuttle flight, an Airbus A300, prepared to depart the Marine Air Terminal for Boston. Boston trips are flown on the Airbus, Washington trips on a completely refurbished fleet of B727s.