Word: airings
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...recent CAB study of Air New England found the company's finances and cash flow to be "precarious." Founded in 1970 and controlled by Investors Fairleigh Dickinson Jr. and Robert Kanzler, the Boston-based airline carries some 500,000 passengers annually. It operates at a loss for most of the year but gambles on cashing in during the summer, when traffic triples. Despite federal subsidies of $3.7 million, it lost $2 million on revenues of $21 million in 1978, and does not expect to do much better this year...
...airline has a good safety record, but passengers' beefs range from cavalier treatment by some of the company's 650 employees-augmented in the peak season by 100 often inexperienced summer employees-to the quirky booking system. Reservations made through other airlines often are not entered in Air New England's computers. Many passengers complain that even if they book directly with Air New England, their reservations are lost or simply not honored. Because so many flights are sold out in advance, or just canceled (even in good weather), travelers routinely reserve seats on several flights...
...Air New England's planes may make as many as 18 departures a day. Result: even if the weather is benign and the engines work fine, the routine delays of ten or 15 minutes that occur at each stop can make a plane one or even two hours late by day's end. Many travelers consider it no small victory if they and their luggage arrive at the same destination at the same time. In some cases, when a plane is fully loaded, the airline may simply keep the bags at the airport and send them...
...Air New England President Charles F. Butler, a former CAB official, ruefully concedes that his customers have had a rough time this year. Says he: "We did a hell of a job on the traveling public this summer. We made a shambles of things." The usual problems were aggravated by squabbles with the unions. In June the pilots staged a slowdown to express their ire over the pace of negotiations for a new contract; more than 500 flights were delayed that month; and 15% were canceled. In July more than 800 out of 6,300 flights were either late...
...writer was equally eye-catching: a tall, pale, boyish figure whose trademark was a gleaming white suit. He looked like a collegian out of Held's Angels, or a swell in Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies. Raised in Richmond, Va., Wolfe spoke softly and courteously, exuding an air of the right stuff. But he wrote like a hit man. "Tiny Mummies! The True Story of the Ruler of 43rd Street's Land of the Walking Dead!" was a surprise attack on the genteel New Yorker magazine and its shy, venerated editor, William Shawn. A shocked cultural establishment...