Hughes Airwest corporate profile April 1975

Special Commemorative Edition
Hughes Air Corp.
April, 1975
The Sundance Airline
Half A Decade Later . . .
A CORPORATE PROFILE
The following is an overview of where Hughes Airwest
stands in the world today and the milestones the airline
has attained in the five years under Hughes management.
Geographic Scope
Hughes Airwest flies to eight states (Arizona, California,
Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington),
Mexico and Canada. It is the only three-nation route struc-
ture operated by a U.S. regional airline.
Fifty-six cities are served in this territory that extends
along the entire west coast of the U.S. to inland areas as
far east as Great Falls, Mont.; Salt Lake City; and Phoenix.
Hughes Airwest provides the only U.S. flag carrier service
to five cities in Mexico, or more Mexican destinations than
are served by any other U.S. airlineregional or trunk.
The north-south span of its systembetween Edmonton,
Canada and Guadalajara, Mexicois about 2,800 miles. If
extended in an east-west direction, it would connect San
Francisco and New York.
This service region contains most of the countrys pleas-
ure destinationsnational parks, monuments and recrea-
tional areas; winter ski centers; summer sun destinations;
and nearly every Pacific Coast beach resort.
The major population centers served within this region
comprise some of the countrys largest and fastest growing
megalopoli.
System Growth
Forty-seven cities now get Hughes Airwest jet service.
This is a 56 per cent increase from the airlines 30 jet cities
in 1970. (The nine other citiesall smallare served by the
few remaining F-27 propjets in the fleet.)
On the other hand, the number of all-jet cities has
jumped 250 per cent to 28 from only 8 five years ago.
Three cities have been added to the system since 1970.
They are Guadalajara and Guaymas in Mexico and Edmon-
ton in western Canada.
Since 1970, Hughes Airwest has inaugurated nonstop
service linking many growing cities and major population
hubs.
This ability to offer improved service is the result of the
airlines initiative in seeking and obtaining a realignment
of its routes, which integrated the separate systems of its
three predecessor companies into one operating certificate.
The resulting, and less restrictive, route structure per-
mitted the airline for the first time to overfly previous
mandatory stops and capture a larger share of the more
competitive markets throughout the West.
About 800 aircraft arrivals and departures are operated
daily throughout the system.

Current
Sundance
Destinations
Future
Expansion
Sundance
Fleet
The following cities
are served by Hughes
Airwests Sundance
fleet (with the year
flights were inaugurated
in parentheses):
ARIZONA
Grand Canyon (1972)
Kingman (1949)
Page (1959)
Phoenix (1949)
Tucson (1968)
Yuma (1952)
CALIFORNIA
Bakersfield (1956)
Blythe (1952)
Burbank (1956)
Chico (1946)
Crescent City (1948)
El Centro (1952)
Eureka (1946)
Fresno (1962)
Los Angeles (1946)
Monterey (1946)
Oakland (1946)
Ontario (1955)
Palm Springs (1957)
Redding (1946)
Sacramento (1946)
San Diego (1953)
San Francisco (1946)
San Jose (1946)
Santa Ana (1952)
Santa Barbara (1946)
Santa Maria (1946)
Stockton (1955)
IDAHO
Boise (1944)
Idaho Falls (1944)
Lewiston (1944)
Pocatello (1946)
Twin Falls (1948)
MONTANA
Great Falls (1959)
Kalispell (1959)
NEVADA
Las Vegas (1966)
Reno (1966)
OREGON
Eugene (1947)
Klamath Falls (1953)
Medford (1946)
North Bend (1947)
Portland (1946)
Redmond (1959)
UTAH
Cedar City (1958)
Salt Lake City (1959)
WASHINGTON
Pasco (1949)
Seattle (1946)
Spokane (1946)
Yakima (1952)
MEXICO
Guadalajara (1971)
Guaymas (1973)
La Paz (1968)
Mazatlan (1968)
Puerto Vallarte (1968)
CANADA
Calgary (1960)
Edmonton (1974)
Several route applications, if approved, would lead to
future expansion. They include:
Service to the Texas cities of El Paso, San Antonio and
Houston through a route swap agreement with American
Airlines. This application is pending before the Civil
Aeronautics Board.
Service to Vancouver in British Columbia and to the
Mexican resort cities of Acapulco, Mexico City, Zihua-
tenejo and Manzanillo.
A total of 35 aircraft are in scheduled operation*:
Sixteen Super DC-9-30 jets (103 passengers)
Twelve DC-9-10 and DC-9-15 jets (75 passengers)
Seven F-27 Fairchild propjets (40 passengers)
These numbers reflect the active fleet status as of Dec. 31,
1974. They are changing due to aircraft sales, deliveries or
leasing.
Hughes Airwests DC-9 fleet, which has increased 85
per cent since 1970, is the fourth largest in the U.S. and
the eighth largest in the world.
Increased International Traffic
Revenues from the airlines international traffic in and
out of Mexico and Canada have increased 1,650 per cent
since 1969from $1.2 million, or 2 per cent of total system-
wide passenger revenues, to $22 million, or 13 per cent
of the total.
The number of passengers carried in and out of Mexico
alone has increased 815 per cent since 1970from 13,700
to 125,400.
Likewise, the airlines Canadian traffic has gained 410
per cent during the same periodfrom 19,800 passengers
to 90,800.
And the forecast is for continued growth in these im-
portant international marketplaces.
The People Who Make It Work
A work force of more than 3,800 is employed throughout
the system, including more than 400 pilots and nearly 600
flight attendants.
Reservations personnel are based at telephone sales
centers in Phoenix, Seattle, San Mateo and Los Angeles.
These employes handle more than 7,000,000 telephone
calls a year, or about 95 per cent of the systemwide res-
ervations, through IRMA (for Instant Reservations Made
Accurately), a high-speed reservations computer in Los
Angeles.
The systemwide employe payroll was nearly $59,000,000
in 1974.
HUGHES
Published by the Public Relations Department
International Airport, San Francisco, California 94128
(415) 573-4747 (San Mateo)
Dramatic when the Hughes management took over in April, 1970,
. I it inherited a 1969 year-end net loss of nearly $21 million,
rinanciai management achieved its first net profit of $1.9
Turnaround million in 1972 . in 1973 and 1974 it earned net profits of
$4.7 million and $7.9 million, respectively.
By deleting small uneconomic cities and improving over-
all productivity, federal subsidy need has decreased at an
average annual rate of 26 per cent. The objective is to get
off subsidy altogether.
(Add 000)
1974
1973
1972*
1971*
1970
Total revenues
$159,900
$130,107
$96,701
$96,231
$85,261
Operating expenses
147,500
123,823
94,176
98,001
91,941
Operating profit (loss)
Non-operating income
12,400
6,284
2,525
(1,770)
(6,680)
(expenses)
(2,324)
(1,437)
(615)
(1,548)
(5,168)
Income taxes
2,100
180



Net profit (loss)
7,945
4,667
1,910
(3,318)
(8,171)
Results affected by a four-month labor dispute that started Dec. 15, 1971
and ended in mid-April, 1972.
The companys net earnings have gained by more than $28 million since
1969 as follows:
Year ended
Net profit (loss)
Earnings swing
1969
($20.7 million)

1970
(8.2 million)
-|-$12.5 million
1971
(3.3 million)
+ 5.2 million
1972
1.9 million
+ 4.9 million
1973
4.7 million
-f 2.8 million
1974
7.9 million
+ 3.2 million
$28.6 million
Improved Performance
1974 1973
1972
1971 1970
Passengers boarded (add 000)
3,662* 3,366
2,558
2,731 2,898
(Passenger boardings have increased 26 per cent since 1970.)
Passenger miles flown
(add 000) 1,443,428* 1,260,000 891,373 881,890 892,611
(Passenger miles have increased 62 per cent since 1970.)
Load factor (percentage of
seats filled) 55.5%* 51.3% 47.5% 45.9% 45%
(The average load factor has increased 23 per cent since 1970.)
Passenger density (number of
Passengers flying per mile) 41.7* 41.2 38.8 34.3 31.6
(Passenger density has increased 50 per cent since 1970.)
Average miles flown
per passenger 394* 374 348 323 307
(The average passenger trip length has increased 28 per cent since 1970.)
On-time performance*** 77.1% 83.7% 84.7% 85.4%* 85.2%
All-time annual record.
Includes severely restricted service during the four-month labor dispute.
***The airline industry considers 70 per cent on-time performance very good for
selected cities designated by the Civil Aeronautics Board. Hughes Airwests
systemwide on-time average (departure within 15 minutes of schedule) has
exceeded that minimum standard in each of the last five years. This system-
wide reporting format exceeds requirements set by the CAB for only the desig-
nated cities. Hughes Airwest reports on-time performance for its entire system
of airport stations instead of only for the CAB-designated cities, as many other
airlines do.

Major Facilities
San Francisco International Airport (mailing address)
San Francisco, Calif. 94128
(Area code 415) 573-4000; TELEX: 34-9431
INTERNATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
International Heaquarters is at 3125 Clearview Way at
Hillsdale Boulevard in San Mateo, Calif.midway between
San Francisco and San Jose.
This is the $6.2-million home and operational nerve cen-
ter for the only scheduled airline based in the San Fran-
cisco Bay Area.
Around-the-clock daily international operations in the
western portion of the North American continent are di-
rected from this facility.
The headquarters complex features the industrys most
modern reservations center, which has been studied by
most of the worlds major air carriers.
Other space in the San Francisco Bay Area includes
hanger, cargo and terminal facilities at San Francisco Inter-
national Airport and industrial space in South San Fran-
cisco.
Hughes Airwest also is the only airline with a flight at-
tendant training school in the Bay Area.
MAINTENANCE CENTER
Under the new Hughes management, the airline reached
beyond the confines of its daily operations and signed
many outside contracts that have produced additional reve-
nues.
Most of this outside work has been done at the airlines
maintenance and engineering base at Sky Harbor Interna-
tional Airport in Phoenixthe only such facility in Arizona.
There, Hughes Airwest has performed work on small
executive aircraft and on DC-9 jets for McDonnell Douglas
Corp., Air Canada, the U.S. Air Force and Turkish Airlines.
The Phoenix facility also is certificated by the Federal
Aviation Administration to perform repair and service on
DC-9 jets and F-27 aircraft of other airlines.
Billings in 1974 amounted to more than $5,000,000 for
this work and other outside contractual ventures.
Work on the airlines own fleet, as well as on these out-
side contracts, is done by a work force of about 500 skilled
mechanics, supervisors, engineers, avionics and instrument
specialists, supply clerks and support staff.
Some 1,600,000 man-hours at a cost of about $18,500,000
are spent annually to maintain high standards of safety and
performance for the airlines Sundance fleet.
High Training Standards
Hughes Airwest maintains high standards for all its em-
ployes.
Pilots receive periodic flight and ground instruction in
Phoenix and the other three domiciles in Seattle, San Fran-
cisco and Las Vegas. Mechanics are trained in Phoenix.
Flight attendants and dispatchers, along with pilots, re-
ceive annual recurrent training to ensure continued compe-
tency.
Foreign and Domestic Sales Offices
When the Hughes management took over, the airline had
only three foreign sales offices under contract.
Since then, it has established its own full-time sales of-
fices in Tokyo, Sydney, Athens, Mexico City and Honolulu.
An off-line sales office also was created in New York City.
To further bolster this global sales force and better
accommodate its large number of annual foreign travelers,
the airline acquired sales representatives in Brussels, Paris,
Rome, London and Frankfurt.
The airline also maintains full-staff sales and city ticket
offices in 19 major cities it serves in the U.S., Mexico and
Canada.
Overseas Business Programs
Since 1970, Hughes Airwest has become the only re-
gional, and one of only a few airlines at all, involved in
technical and management assistance agreements with air
carriers in foreign countries.
Contracts currently are maintained with the following
overseas airlines: Union of Burma Airways and Royal Nepal
Airlines in southern Asia; Toa Domestic Airlines (TDA) in
Tokyo; Air Liberia and Air Mauritanie (Mauritania) in west
Africa; and Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia).
These nations are using Hughes Airwests operating and
managerial skills to help them develop air transportation
systems tailored to their particularand variedneeds.
Fair Share Paid in 74
Hughes Airwest contributed its fair share to the economy
of the West by paying nearly $5,200,000 in property, pay-
roll and other taxes and licenses during 1974.
Landing fees, which were paid to all its airports for the
privilege of providing passenger service, totaled nearly
$3,800,000.
The cost of other services, including the rental of facili-
ties, totaled more than $4,000,000.
All these dollars are paid to various government agencies
in the eight Western states, Canada and Mexico.
A Brief Look Back
The assets of Air West, Inc. were purchased in April,
1970 by Hughes Air Corp., which operates the airline as
Hughes Airwest.
The predecessor carrier was formed in 1968 by the
merger of three pioneer airlines in the West: Pacific Air
Lines (based in San Francisco), Bonanza Air Lines (Phoe-
nix) and West Coast Airlines (Seattle).
Pacific began scheduled passenger service as South-
west Airways in 1946 and became Pacific Air Lines 10 years
later. Bonanza started as a flight school and charter service
at Las Vegas in June, 1945 and operated its first scheduled
flights in August, 1946. West Coast was founded in March,
1941; in August, 1952, it purchased Empire Air Lines, a
feeder carrier that was established in April, 1944 under
the name Zimmerly Air Transport.