Viewing page 34 of 49
This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.
March 25, 1968 Aviation DAILY Page 120 SOME AIRLINES DON'T HAVE THE WORD ON NEW RATING SERVICE A New York company that plans to rate the airlines on all phases of passenger service states that the carriers have reacted enthusiastically, but a spot check by The DAILY shows that at least some top industry marketing officials are not yet aware of the proposal. The press release, headed "Airlines Enter the Rating Race," issued by Target Market Services, 162 East 38th Street, N.Y., said a "continuous rating service" will be provided by airlines, designed along the lines of a standard sustaining package goods audit service." With the new rating it said, "airlines will take their place beside instant coffee and breakfast cereals." The service will be handled through a TMS subsidiary, Airline Rating Services, supervised by Armand Villiger, TMS v.p. TMS is a marketing consultant firm. Ronald Friedman, TMS president, told The Daily that "to say that the reaction has been phenomenal would be an understatement." However, marketing officials of two domestic trunks and two local service carriers said they had not heard of the proposal. Another trunk v.p. had heard that a service was planned, but knew nothing about it. Still another said his staff was studying the proposal and that the preliminary thinking was that "it did not seem to offer anything very effective." Some of the trunks now conduct their own airport interviews covering their own service and that of competitors. The ARS plan is to rate such items as transportation to the airport, schedules, inflight service, baggage handling, etc. Trunks, local service carriers and international airlines will be covered through interviews with passengers at airports. The service will be sold to "airlines and their prime sources of supply only." A technique has been devised that is "successful and statistically sound," the "overall architect" is Dr. William Strunning, of Drexel Institute, Philadelphia, Friedman said. A "very substantial" field force is now in training, and the first audit period available for sale will be June-July, with the report available August 15, Friedman added. Every two months, a subscribing airline will receive a confidential report on its own service and that of its competitors. An airline is rated whether or not it is a subscriber. Minimum subscription is for one year--six audit periods---and the minimum buy for an airline is a rating of its own operations plus that of carriers flying competitive routes. An airline is not permitted to use the rating material in its advertising, Friedman said. He declined to discuss subscription prices and said that the subscription list will be confidential. $110 MILLION IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM FOR SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission has approved a $110 million improvement program for San Francisco International Airport. Central feature of the program is a new terminal complex that will expand the airport's annual capacity from the current 12.5 million passengers to 25 million. Under the program, the present central and south terminal would be consolidated into a large horseshoe-shaped passenger facility that will have 90 airplane loading spaces. The current facilities can handle 54. Commuter type flights will be handed at the face of the terminal, while long-haul flights will be serviced at a series of field rotundas. There will be moving sidewalks connecting the main terminal with the rotundas. In addition, approximately $26 million of the program will go for relocation of Taxiway B to permit the terminal expansion, a new sewage treatment plant, new air cargo handling facilities, and new apron and operations facilities. The northeast quadrant of the airport, comprising about 179 acres, will be filled in preparation of a permanent air cargo center. The program has been under the direction of general manager George Hansen. Architectural production has been handled by John Warnecke and Dreyfuss and Blackford. Work is expected to begin this year on six of the planned nine rotunda facilities, two-level parking facility for rental autos, a new north terminal, and frontal gates for the south terminal, the entrance road and inner roadways. TRANS-TEXAS AIRLINES set a boarding record March 15, flying 6,333 passengers that day.
