The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 42

D6 The Pittsburgh Press Tuesday, May 7, 1985 Concorde to promote new service By Joe Grata 0 ft 1 1 -1 -rwri; mll cpt i 'V Vf a -y price of a Concorde roundtrip ticket from New York to London. "Would you like to make your reservation now?" he asked. In comparison, Pittsburgh-to-London coach fares aboard a British Airwavs 747 range from a low of $239 for one-way standby to $679 roundtrip based on an advance purchase, seven-day minumum stay APEX plan. A first class, roundtrip ticket will cost $4,268 The Concorde, which has flown the New York-London route in as little as two hours, 38 mintues, will visit here for about two hours. It is to return to New York at 12:20 p.m.

British Airways spokeswoman Deborah Bernstein said British Airways has received permission for the Concorde to make a "fly over" Pittsburgh at a minimum altitude en route to Greater Pitt. She said a final decision about the "fly over" will not be made until Saturday morning and depends on weather conditions. If it occurs, people can begin to look for the plane to pass over the city shortly after 10 a.m. The County Aviation Department has invited spectators to Greater Pitt but has issued these suggestions and ground rules: The Concorde will be parked in the airport's cargo area, just west of the main entrance. Visitors will be able to see the plane from outside.

Only ticketed passengers will be permitted aboard. 1 The public can park at two lots at the cargo area for a close look, but since parking space is limited, Aviation Director Stephen George suggests that people view it from the Beaver valley Expressway, from which he said it will be "highly visible." Motorists beaded westbound on the Parkway have been advised to leave the Beaver Valley Expressway at Flaugherty Run Road Exit in Moon to turn around and head back toward Greater Pitt for the best view. That area could be congested, because PennDot has limited the expressway (Route 60) to a single lane in each direction for the next two months during a pavement repair project Regular airport parking lots are not within easy walking distance of the cargo area and no shuttle service will be offered. Since about 60 regularly scheduled flights will arrive and depart late Saturday morning, those passengers should allow extra travel time, because of the anticipated congestion from persons there to catch a glimpse of the Concorde. The Pittsburgh Press THE WORLD'S fastest commercial airliner, the supersonic Concorde, will make its inaugural visit to Greater Pittsburgh International Airport on Saturday.

The plane will land at about 10:30 a.m. to help commemorate the start of British Airways' new, one-stop daily service between Pittsburgh and London on Monday. That service will be on a wide-body Boeing 747, with a stop at Dulles International Airport in Washington, and not aboard a Concorde, which crosses the Atlantic Ocean in half the time an average of 3 to hours at Mach 2 speed, which is about 1,400 mph. The promotional appearance of the Concorde presents a rare chance for the public to see the Concorde. The one coming here is the first of the seven needle-nosed aircraft operated by British Airways to be refurbished.

It also is a chance to see the most expensive plane in the world to ride. A British Airways ticket agent in New York yesterday quoted $4,932, "plus a $3 departure tax," as the United Pres International The Concorde will make its first Pittsburgh landing on Saturday British Airways Jrom page Dl "When you're in a dominant position like that, there's a lot you can do to Erotect your position, like frighten-lg off potential competitors, exploiting your position with high prices, and lobbying the government," Ashworth added. Indeed, the British Government stands to be the biggest gainer when British Airways is ''privatized," picking up as much as a billion pounds ($1.22 billion) according to most estimates. Stock analyst Freud believes British Airways has good investment potential. "The airline is im- roving fast, and faster than others, hey've done the easy cuts already.

Now they're doing the fine-tuning and I believe that represents an opportunity for investors." But British Airways' Harris remains more interested in the pragmatic side of the business and the U.S. airline market in particular. 'The U.S. is not by any means a saturated market," he said. "There is a huge market there to be tapped.

With the great value of the dollar, more and more people will be coming to Europe. "Pittsburgh is not the end of the story. We hope by this time- next year to be going into another city." line. When finished, it will have cost 40 million pounds. "It is one corporate image for everything," said Harris.

"Lounges, uniforms, graphics, signage, even the cutlery on the Concorde has been redesiped. "It will create a discontinuity with what went before. It says that we are still proud of our tradition but we are firmly in the high-tech age." The redesign, which was done by San Francisco-based Landnor Associates, was criticized by British firms, which claimed it was old-fashioned. Harris rejects what he labels as appeals to nationalism: "We are a world-trading nation, and a world-trading company. If you're falling back on patriotism to sell your products, you're a weak product.

I don't think you should ride on your nationality. That sentiment marks a stark contrast with the old British Airways attitude. Until just a few years ago, its corporate slogan was the unashamedly nationalistic appeal "Fly The Flag." But the achievements of the last four years notwithstanding, doubts about British Airways' competitiveness still exist A study by the London brokerage Phillips and Drew placed British Airways 19th out of 26 major airlines as measured by a complicated productivity formula. British Airways came in behind not only the major U.S. airlines, but other European carriers like West Germany's Lufthansa and even its own British rival, British Caledonia.

"We found large gains in labor productivity, but that's only one-third of total costs. Total productivity has gone up only 1 percent per annum, which is well below trend," said (lark Ashworth, of the respected Institute of Fiscal Studies in London, who studied British Airways for the government. Harris blames this on modernization of equipment, which has increased costs. "We are not a small airline, and we will never have the unit cost of the smaller airlines," he adds. Ashworth believes that "privatization" without deliberate measures to increase competition, such as through American-style deregulation, will not make British Airways more efficient "The government has chosen to protect British Airways," he said.

Whole sectors of the market like routes to South Africa and some Oriental routes have been kept for British Airways exclusively. ence with your competitors," said Jim Harris, "is in the total experience, starting with when you pick up the phone and inquire at the reservations." Accordingly, the reservations center is being moved from its woefully inadequate central London facility to the massive British Airways complex near Heathrow Airport. The days may soon be gone when the fastest way to find out a British Airways schedule in London was to pick up a phone and dial Pan Am. Part of the radical change at British Airways was the development of the new television advertising campaign 'The World's Favorite Airline" based on its claim that it flies more people to more places than anyone else. "We hired a new agency and began a worldwide campaign, showing the same ads in 22 different countries," said Harris.

"They are all the same everywhere, but very different from the conventional airline ad. When you see a British Airways ad, you know what it is and you remember it" The ads, which were done by Saatchi and Saatchi, Britain's most innovative agency, won awards around the world. Particularly memorable was the ad in which an airplane swoops down out of the sky pages by small groups of workers like baggage handlers could easily turn arrival at London's Heathrow Airport into a voyage into the unknown. Older planes were replaced with modern, quieter, more fuel-efficient airplanes, many of them American. Bold and radical but long-overdue steps like the elimination of 26 money-losing routes cut costs further.

By 1984, British Airways had gotten its break-even load factor down from 64 per cent in 1981 to 55 per cent considered a tremendous achievement In the year ended March 1, 1984, British Airways showed an after-tax profit of 214 million pounds, making it the most profitable airline in the world. Profits for the year ended this March also are expected to be good. In many ways, the most important change, British Airways executives believe, has been the emphasis on service. "We're sending all our people through a course called Putting People First It's generating a whole new spirit, getting them to smile at customers, getting our cabin crew to relate to customers. It's good common-sense marketing," said Bob Challens, the airline's marketing manager for the Americas.

If this sounds more characteristic of American business than British, that is not surprising: Colin Marshall, British Airways' chief executive, spent 10 years in the U.S. as managing director of Avis Car Rental. "The only way to create a differ I The 1972 merger of BOAC with British European Airways that created British Airways resulted in a giant and bloated company. "It was an appallingly badly run airline," said David Freud, an analyst at the London brokerage, Rowe and Pitman, "It is inherently wealthy, with the most valuable route structure in the world, includ-; ing those to the U.S., India and Australia. But it got very fat indeed without the disciplines of the mar- ket forcing it to cut costs." Sir John King (now Baron King of Wartnaby, ennobled by Mrs.

Thatcher for his services to industry) took over as chairman in 1981 as part of a thorough shake-up at senior levels. Only one of the nine members of the current British Airways board dates from before 1980. King had to face not only British Airways' internal problems but also an industry in the midst of worldwide recession. He developed a three-part plan to cut costs, modernize the fleet and improve service. "We adopted the concept of being a market-led airline, as opposed to operations-led as we had been in the past," said Jim Harris, British Airways' marketing manager.

"That meant, first of all, big cuts in terms of people. We lost 22,000 people, down from 59,000 to 37,000 employees, in just two and a half years." Industrial relations are still sensitive, and British Airways executives are reluctant to talk too much about their achievements. But it is clear that relations are far better than a few years ago, when wildcat on the bewildered and cowering denizens of a London street Part of the new look is British Airways' implementation of a new corporate design, which it claims to be the most comprehensive image change ever undertaken by an air- What if you could get Vmce Loinbardi to teach you how to win? II f''; 1 J' ft Jj If I I 'i 4 4 1 41 ll i -f 1 What these copier malfunction symbols really mean it's time for a Panasonic: Ji Coucli Loinbardi believed that success was based on training, practice and more training. Vie agree. So at IBM Product Centers, we've put together a inning combination of trained sales representatives, seminars to show you how to run your business more efficiently and classes to teach you The Panasonic FP-1520 copier is as reliable as it is versatile- Stop letting copier breakdowns slow down your business.

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