Now we are back in the cabin; our seat belts are fastened. As the plane makes the final approach for landing we pass over the company's flight attendants training school and flight training academy near the airport. The flight instructors have had airline experience plus some teaching experience, which qualifies them to teach new flight crew members and to check them periodically once they have started working.
"Please remain in your seats until the seat belt sign has been turned off," the flight attendant requests. A few minutes later we are walking through the passenger terminal heading for the limousine to take us downtown where the company's headquarters is located.
AIRLINE MANAGEMENT
In contrast to the hubbub at the airport, the six floors of dignified offices high in a city skyscraper at first seem almost uninteresting, if not dull. The impression is erroneous, though, for the more we learn about what goes on within these walls, which are so remote from the airplanes, the more fascinating it all becomes.
The Reservations Department
Our first stop is in the reservations department. Here, all of the incoming telephone calls requesting information or reservations are received by numerous reservations agents, each of whom works within a tiny cubicle. Apart from a headset, a copy of the company's schedules and tariffs, and the Official Airline Guide, which contains schedules of all the airlines, the only other equipment in the cubicle is the computer terminal. This is connected to the reservations computer center, which is located in another city 600 miles away.
The computer is really an electronic brain with a fantastic memory. When a passenger requests a seat on a certain flight, the agent asks the computer if there is space on that particular flight. The answer is flashed back instantly. Then the agent is able to make the reservation by typing the date, flight number, destination, and the passenger's name, address, and telephone number. This information is stored in the computer. Later it will be retrieved when it is time to see how many passengers are booked for that flight and a passenger manifest is prepared.
The reservations department or the ticket counter are two of the best places to start one's airline career. Usually a week or ten days' class-room instruction in routings and fares is followed by three weeks of on- the-job training. Then, the agent is considered ready to work independently. The knowledge and experience gained in these positions give one an invaluable background for future advancement.
Sales Positions
The reservations department is part of the general sales department, which is located on the floor above. Although airlines depend for the most part on their newspaper, magazine, radio, and TV advertising as well as on the thousands of travel agents for their customers, a number of specialists are needed to handle various sales functions.
Walking through the corridors, we are able to get a good idea of the range of sales activities by looking at the names of the different divisions that we pass:
- Passenger Sales Division. Responsible for planning and carrying out sales programs.
- Freight Sales Division. Same as above, but for freight.
- Reservations and Ticket Offices Division. Oversees the operation of all reservations and ticket offices, planning and opening new offices, and training new employees.
- Interline Sales Division. Encourages other airlines to route as much business as possible on each other's planes.
- Agency Sales Division. Plans programs designed to increase the cooperation of travel agencies in booking business with the airline.
- Convention Sales Division. Contacts organizations that will be holding large conventions and persuades convention delegates to use the airline.
- Tariff Division. Computes and publishes all of the company's fares and freight tariffs.
- Schedule Division. Prepares and publishes all the schedules for both the passenger planes and air freighters that the company will operate.
- Advertising Division. Prepares and places all company advertising.
"Many of our people have transferred from the reservations and ticket offices division," he said. "On the other hand, we hire college graduates who have backgrounds in transportation, economics, statistics, business administration, or computer operation, and I find that they learn quickly and become very satisfactory employees."
Public Relations and Purchasing
Taking the elevator to the next floor, as we continue our tour of the headquarters building, we come to the public relations department. Its mission is to provide the public with information about the company, at the same time promoting the company's image. Whenever an airline has a problem newsworthy enough to make the TV newscast or headlines, it is the job of the public relations department to see that it receives sympathetic treatment.
"All of our staff are devoted to just one purpose," the public relations director told us, "and that is telling the outside world about our airline and how great it is. But when we have a serious accident, we pull hard on the reversing lever and all our efforts are bent on toning down the news reports and trying to see that the TV, radio, and newspapers are factual in their reporting and free of sensationalism."
To our query regarding job opportunities in his department the executive replied: "Apart from the clerical positions, we like to hire men and women from schools that specialize in public relations or journal-ism. Sometimes we take a man or woman who has a newspaper back-ground."
The much larger purchasing department is across the hall. Here we learn that millions of dollars are spent annually by staff members as they buy everything from paper clips to multi-million dollar airplanes.
