to September. The successful conclusion of Modern's first summer season in Berlin saw one aircraft speculatively retained for the winter season to develop a new charter programme to the Canary Islands, a first in the West Berlin market. Modern Air appointed former Saturn Airways Berlin station manager John D. MacDonald general manager to oversee its European operations from its Tegel base. Modern Air carried over 135,000 passengers (out of a company-wide total of just under 300,000) during its first year of operations from Tegel. The successful conclusion of Modern Air's first and promising start to its second year in West Berlin resulted in the airline signing a five-year contract with Berliner Flugring worth $20 million (£8.3 million). The contract ran from the beginning of the 1969/70 winter season until the end of the 1974 summer season. Berliner Flugring began referring to business partner Modern Air's CV-990s as Coronados in its marketing. This was the nickname pioneered by Swiss flag carrier Swissair, the type's first operator in Europe. Modern Air's five-year contract with Berliner Flugring and an expanded US-based flying programme under contract to parent GAC that saw prospective homeowners flown into Tucson, Arizona from May 1969 to view the new Rio Rico property development near Nogales significantly improved aircraft utilisation. Also in 1969, Modern Air's Tegel-based European operations manager John MacDonald assumed additional responsibilities as the airline's vice president. In addition, the airline sold a CV-990 to Spantax (which was replaced with another example acquired from Alaska Airlines in December) and began installing a then new type of light-weight, UK-manufactured "slimline" seat in its 990s. This enabled the addition of two extra rows, without compromising legroom. The resulting increase in capacity to 149 passengers per plane resulted in an up to 20% improvement in seat-mile cost (compared with American's original 125-seat, low density configuration) and helped improve the airline's financial performance. Modern Air also reduced the CV-990's speed limit from Mach .85 to Mach .78. This reduced fuel burn by 30% per hour and had the beneficial side effect of increasing the aircraft's range by 20% (by reducing drag), permitting non-stop transatlantic flights from the eastern seaboard of the US to Central Europe, such as Philadelphia to Vienna for example, with a full payload. While Modern's 990s were more expensive to operate than the dedicated short-/medium-haul jets of their British rivals in West Berlin due to higher fuel consumption and