AVIATION: Piedmont's Progress

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North Carolinians, who sometimes call their state "a valley of humiliation between two mountains of conceit," last week had something to crow about. The Civil Aeronautics Board, which ordinarily renews the certificates of "feeder" airlines for only three years, broke precedent by issuing a seven-year renewal to North Carolina's tiny but fast-growing Piedmont Airlines. In addition, CAB awarded Piedmont four new routes, and gave Piedmont a public pat on the back for its "outstanding record."

In twelve years, Piedmont's founder and president, Thomas H. (for Henry) Davis, 32, has stretched a $14,000 investment in a plane agency into an airline with twelve DC-3s and 2,230 miles of routes reaching from Wilmington, N.C. to Cincinnati. Although Davis' airline is technically a "feeder" (i.e., a supplier for trunk-line routes), 47% of its passengers ride only Piedmont. President Davis runs his line so efficiently that he needed only 24% in airmail pay per $1 of gross revenue to break even last year, while other feeders require as much as 46¢ for Southwest, 66¢ for West Coast.

Davis achieves this greater efficiency, for one thing, by getting an average of 8½ to 9 hours daily use out of each plane (v. about 6 for most local-service airlines). Davis squeezed pennies ("We even watch pencils"), and by running as many flights as possible, lured business passengers, who found that they could make quick round trips the same day.

Tom Davis has been flying ever since he was 15, when he talked his father Egbert, sales manager of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (Camels), into paying for his lessons. By 16 he had got his private pilot's license, and by the time he graduated from the University of Arizona (he went there for his asthma), he had qualified as a commercial pilot and a flight instructor. He sold Piper Cubs, then formed Piedmont Aviation Inc. to combine plane sales, maintenance, flying instruction and charter service. When World War II broke, he began training Air Force flying instructors and ferry pilots. By war's end Davis had piled up $60,000 in profits and was ready to start his feeder line.

With cash from a $675,000 stock issue and a $300,000 bank loan, Davis bought ten more DC-3s. He made a profit ($65,528) in his first full year, then ran up a $62,137 loss in 1949 has been in the black ever since. Last year his profits were up 77%, to $144,562. Piedmont has carried 515,695 passengers a total of 115.8 million miles without an injury, and its stock has risen from $1 to $3.50. Moreover, asthma no longer troubles him.