The fall of America’s trendiest airline

Airline corporations today rarely are synonymous with glamour, but Braniff Airways was all about sophistication.

collapsed during the Great Depression, but a contract with the federal government to carry air mail from Chicago to Dallas became its saving grace, D Magazine wrote in 1981. The corporation relocated to Love Field and eventually expanded its routes to South America.

wore mini-dresses imagined by wellknown designers Roy Halston, Alexander Girard and Emilio Pucci. Even the length of their hair and their weight were monitored before they started each shift, former hostess Yvonne Crum told the Advocate in 2012.

Founded by Oklahoma insurance man Thomas Braniff and his brother Paul, the airline rose from the ruins of their failed Tulsa-Oklahoma City Airways venture in 1930. Braniff Airways could’ve quickly

Braniff’s trajectory changed entirely when Harding L. Lawrence took over in 1965. He contracted advertiser Mary Wells Lawrence and several well-known fashion designers to revamp the airline’s image. Vibrant planes and trendy uniforms became the corporation’s trademarks.

The women who served chef-made meals and provided safety instructions to passengers weren’t considered flight attendants. They were hostesses who

ELISSA CHUDWIN PHOTOS

Braniff’s forward-thinking approach and high-class ambiance seemed like the perfect formula for success. But the airline’s glory days were short-lived with rising costs of fuel, airline deregulation and overexpansion. “Since 1978 its losses have totaled nearly $400 million, including $160.1 million last year on revenues of $1.21 billion and $41.4 million in this year’s first quarter,” the New York Times reported in 1982. Braniff filed for bankruptcy that May. —