Watch the Yellow Birdie

Amelia Earhart helped found Northeast Airlines 35 years ago, and some critics insist that that was the highest Northeast ever flew. Its equipment included the oldest DC-3s flying regular service in the U.S. Schedules through and out of New England were as patchy as a Cape Cod fog, baggage and reservations were often scrambled. Anguished anecdotes about Northeast service became a fad. There was, for instance, the plane that loaded up and then sat for so long on the apron that passengers joked to one another about not having a pilot. As it turned out, they didn't; he came along about half an hour late and finally flew them off.

To help Northeast, the Civil Aeronautics Board ten years ago added the lucrative New York-Miami run to its New England routes. Seven years later, anxious to help National and Eastern and assuming that there was no longer much hope for Northeast, the CAB took back the route that was providing Northeast with two-thirds of its income.

Only a law suit got the certification back--on a temporary basis. Meanwhile the airline lost $53.8 million, and finally 16 airplanes were repossessed. Disgusted with the outlook, the Hughes Tool Co., owned by Howard Hughes, last year sold its controlling interest to Storer Broadcasting Co. of Miami.

Trying to Be Selective. Under Storer, Northeast shows signs of getting off the ground. The new owners have paid off debts of $38 million, provided operating capital and set up a leasing company that will eventually enable Northeast to obtain a fleet of 727s and DC-9s--28 in all--to give it competitive frequency. Using a $22 million bond issue raised in its own name, Northeast is also acquiring seven Fairchild 227s to replace the creaky DC-3s on short flights. Most important of all, Storer lured away American Airlines' Operations Vice President Forwood C. (and inevitably

"Bud") Wiser Jr., 45-year-old Annapolis and Harvard Business School graduate, to run the Northeast shop.

At a $75,000 salary with stock options, Bud Wiser has been going full throttle. He has already hired away 15 key executives from other airlines. "We are trying to be selective," he says wryly, "and not hit anyone too hard." He has added 700 new employees to take the strain off an understaffed system, revamped maintenance, scheduling and reservations. To point up the changes, Northeast is advertising its "Yellow-birds," a Raymond Loewy inspiration. Somewhat like Braniff planes, North-cast's aircraft now are white from nose tip back along the fuselage, slant into canary yellow on the after-belly as well as the tail and wings.

Found Money. Northeast got an unexpected tail wind from the airline strike. Flying while competitors were grounded, it earned $1,977,000 in July v. $279,000 in the same month last year; Wiser expects August earnings, when completely totaled, may be even a little better. Depending on new jet deliveries, Northeast may break even for the first time in eleven years. More than that, the line during the strike carried many a customer who had been trying to avoid Northeast. Wiser hopes that some of those passengers will realize that the new Northeast is now trying harder because it really wants to move up from its place as eleventh among the eleven U.S. trunk airlines. Every Northeast employee, as one way to keep them trying, received two shares of company stock for good performance during the strike.

Northeast still has a long way to fly. During the peak of the airline strike rush, Northeast managed to misplace 50 pieces of luggage out of every 1,500. That figure is now down to 15 out of 1.500--still a long way from the industrywide average, somewhat less than one out of 1,500. Wiser intends to slice the time it takes reservation clerks to answer calls, plans to raise on-time departures from 68% of flights to the industry norm of 80% . With a CAB decision on permanent Florida certification pending, and the odds good that Northeast will obtain it, Wiser is going after other routes to augment his vacation-oriented schedules to Florida in the winter and New England in the summer. If he gets his way, Yellowbirds will also hightail it from Boston to the Bahamas and from Miami to London.

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