TWA Skyliner Magazine, 1954-12-30

              Janet Garlough
Named New National
Mary Gordon for TWA
See Page Four
VOL. 17, NO. 52
TRANS WORLD AIRLINES EMPLOYEE PUBLICATION
San Francisco Ousts
St Louis From Bowl
Tournament Lead
See Page Three
DECEMBER 30, 1954
Air Transport Marks
Growth in Past Year
Washington—The scheduled airlines of the United States, domestic
and international, continued to show gains in 1954, according to the Air
â– Transport association. They flew nearly 2l/2 billion revenue ton miles of
traffic, a gain of 15.3% over 1953, and more than double the revenue
ton miles flown in 1949. They grossed a total revenue of approximately
$114 billion, about 8% larger than the preceding year.
The above figures include three =
major branches of the industry:
The domestic trunk lines, local
service lines and international and
overseas carriers. As usual, passengers constituted the bulk of the
traffic and revenues. Some 34 million passengers were carried over
20 billion passenger miles, and
earned for the carriers $1,140,000,-
000 of revenues. Mail and cargo
yielded 5% and 11% of the total
revenues, respectively.
In the domestic trunk line
branch of the industry the 11.5%
increase in passenger miles largely
resulted from the continued upward trend in the coach type
services, a trend which has prevailed since 1950. Coach traffic
was 33% of the passenger miles
in 1954, as contrasted with 3.8%
in 1949. Air Express was the
only service to show a decrease,
being 8.86% below the 1953
figure.
While the domestic trunk lines
showed considerable gains in most
forms of traffic, expenses climbed
faster than revenues, so that operating income of approximately $80
million will be less than in 1953.
In the international field, while
passenger miles were up about
9V_%> the largest gain was in
U. S. mail ton miles. They were
up 37.32%.
As has been true since World
War II, the total number of intercity passengers using common carrier has been declining, with the
exception of the Korean war period,
but the number using airlines has
continually increased. This trend
continued in 1954.
Rail coach and pullman passenger traffic declined some 9% in
1954; a loss of 12% is indicated
for the intercity bus traffic and a
gain of about 12% for the domestic
trunk and local service airlines.
As a result of these traffic
trends, the distribution of passenger
traffic among these three major
types of intercity passenger carrying
in 1954, contrasted with that of
1950, is as follows:
WINNER OF $1000 UNDER THE SUGGESTION PLAN
is Argie Baker, senior accountant in interline passenger
accounts, New York Life building, Kansas City. Present
at the check ceremony are Tom Ashton, manager of
suggestion plan, Matt Travis, manager of air cargo
accounting, Baker, Larry Staley, manager of interline
passenger accounts, presenting the award, Wayne
Brown, accounting supervisor, and Milt Garrison, assistant controller. Baker, with TWA since 1943, is married
and has two daughters.
Accountant Wins $1000
Suggestion Plan Check
Coach & Pullman
Rail
1950    26,800    48%
1954    23,700    41%
Intercity Bus   Domestic Airlines Total
(in millions of passenger miles)
21,254    38% 7,954    12.4% 56,000    100%
17,600    30.5%     16,400    28.3% 57,700    100%
India Cancels
TWA, Pan Am
Traffic Rights
New York—The Indian government notified TWA and Pan American World Airways Tuesday that
effective Jan. 15 both companies'
traffic rights to India will be cancelled.
The American State department,
however, announced at a press conference the same day that the American embassy in New Delhi is still
negotiating for continuation of the
traffic rights for both airlines.
TWA President R. S. Damon ad-
sed TWAers pending further negotiations between the two governments and until further notice, passengers already booked to, through
and from India should not be notified but if they request information,
they should be advised of a possible temporary disruption of service and only upon their request
should alternate arrangements be
made. The same procedure applies
to new bookings.
JOKE OF THE WEEK
"Daughter, did you have to slap
your new boy friend last night?"
"Yes, mother. A couple of times
I thought he was dead."
Suggestion Leads to
Joint Promotion Ad
New York—A promotional tie-
in ad with the Haloid company of
Rochester, N. Y., has resulted from
the suggestion of Jack Coleman,
manager of manuals and forms
control, Kansas City, through the
cooperation of the controller's office.
The ad appeared in Business Week.
Kansas City—Argie Baker, senior accountant in the New York Life
building, is the first TWAer in the controller department to win the
maximum $1000 award possible under the suggestion plan. Baker turned
the trick last week with a formula for applying an average rate per mile
to the international ticket lift to come up with the gross international
earned and unearned revenue.
These figures had previously been
determined by actually putting a
separate price on each coupon lifted,
depending upon the tariff division
of revenue, and balancing the result
in totals against the original sales.
Baker's method required considerable research on his part and
assistance from various sections in
the treasury department to arrive
at the rate per mile figure. The
figure has been proven out and
results in a considerable reduction
in time and effort in both the
revenue and machine accounting
sections.
Under airline accounting procedure, a ticket is considered "unearned
(Continued on page 4)
TWAers Get 50% Rate
On American Airlines
New York—TWA and American Airlines have recently worked
out an agreement whereby TWA
employees, their spouses and dependent children may purchase
positive transportation on AAL at
50% of the published fare.
The reduction, however, does not
apply to children's half-fare or
family or excursion plan fares and
may not be used for transportation
to or from Canada.
Application for the reduced fare
must be made through TWA's
central pass bureau in New York.
OUT IN THE LAND OF HEAVENLY FLOWERS a wreath is draped across
the shoulders of Ceylon Prime Minister Sir John Kotelawala by TWA
Secretary Diana Bowersock at Honolulu. Sir John is on a round-the-world
tour (much of it on TWA).
No G-41 Rule Change
Despite New Wording
New York — Clarification was
made this week by the central pass
bureau of regulations governing the
use of the G-41 annual passes.
Although the wording on the
recently issued G-41 passes for
1955 differs from that on the 1954
pass, regulations covering use of the
pass have not been changed. This
usage is explained in the management policy and procedure manual
under "TWA Annual Passes,"
chapter 13.31.01, which is as
follows:
"G-41 — Systemwide (exclusive
of trans-Atlantic portion)—Positive
on Company business on Sky Tourist Constellation flights, Martin and
Douglas equipment; non-positive
on company or personal business,
any equipment." On travel to or
from Canada (Gander) trip pass
shall be obtained from pass issuing
office against annual pass.
Changes Made
In Paycheck
Form for '55
Kansas City—There'll be some
changes on the first TWA paycheck you receive in January—but
it will be in format, not in the all-
important figures following the
dollar sign.
State and city taxes, where applicable, will be reflected in blocks
across the bottom of the paycheck
stub and federal income tax and
social security deductions will be
combined into one amount, captioned Federal Tax. Social security
deductions, of course, will be discontinued upon reaching the maximum as in previous years.
The social security deductions
for 1955 will continue at 2% of
gross wages, but the maximum has
been raised by federal legislation
from $3,600 to $4,200. In other
words, an employee earning a
minimum of $4,200 will contribute
$84 to the social security program
in 1955. The W-2 form for 1955
earnings showing the social security
number will separate social security
contributions and federal withholding tax. The social security number
will not appear on the new paycheck.
The W-2 forms for 1954 earnings will be dispatched from the
payroll section in Kansas City on
or about Jan. 12. The production
of some 17,000 forms by the machine accounting and payroll sections represents a tremendous task
in a short period of time; consequently, employees are requested
not to contact payroll regarding
their W-2s until after Jan. 12.