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Pan American World Airways

Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial flag carrier of the United States from 1927 until its collapse on December 4, 1991.The company was incorporated in 1927 by a former World War I naval aviator, Juan Terry Trippe, who secured a contract to fly mail between Key West, Florida, U.S., and Havana, Cuba.

Passenger service started on 16 January 1928. There were few aviation facilities in Latin America, only three weather stations and no aeronautical radio. A radio genius, Hugo Leuteritz joined the company in 1928, and Charles Lindbergh became the company's Technical Director in 1929. An expansion of miraculous proportions then began, and within two years Pan American routes extended from Miami to Brazil and Buenos Aires, and from both Miami and Brownsville, Texas, via Central America to Panama, connecting with Pan American Grace Airways (Panagra), flying the west coast of South America as far as Chile and Argentina.

In 1931, Sikorsky S-40, four-engined flying boats (the first Clippers) opened a new route to Colombia, via Jamaica, and to Panama.

In 1932, new subsidiaries were opened in Alaska and Cuba (Pacific Alaska Airways and Cubana).

In 1933, CNAC, the China subsidiary was acquired, and began new coastal services. The next year a new subsidiary in Peru was formed, and the Mexico subsidiary opened service between Los Angeles and Mexico City. New Douglas DC-2's, Lockheed Electras, and the famous Sikorsky S-42 four-engined flying boats all entered Latin American service that year.

In 1935, the China Clipper opened trans-Pacific schedules to Manila, Electras opened new schedules in Alaska and Cuba, and DC-2s came to CNAC.

In 1937 Sikorsky S-42Bs surveyed the Atlantic routes, and opened Bermuda service from New York and Baltimore. Douglas DC-3's entered Latin American service.

In 1939, Boeing 314 Clippers entered Pacific service and opened Atlantic schedules to Europe. In 1940 the world's first pressurized airliner, Boeing 307 Stratoliner brought new, fast service to Latin America, augmented by new Douglas DC-3As throughout Latin America, Alaska, and China.

During the Second World War, Pan American operated many services for the military and other branches of the government, performing many heroic missions. CNAC (who had pioneered the "Hump" route in 1940/41) flew more than 20,000 Hump flights during the war.

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postwar era, opened its Atlantic using new land planes to Africa, and Asia.

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Constellations, Boeing 377 Stratocruiser, DC-6B, DC-7C (Seven Seas), then opened the new ""Jet Era" in October 1958. The B-747 opened a new "wide-body" era in 1970, with more comfort and efficiency.

Flight crews Critical to Pan Am's success as an airline was the proficiency of its flight crews, who were rigorously trained in long-distance flight, seaplane anchorage and berthing operations, overwater navigation, radio procedure, aircraft repair, and marine tides. During the day, use of the compass while judging drift from sea currents was normal procedure; at night, all flight crews were trained to use celestial navigation. In bad weather, pilots used dead reckoning and timed turns, making successful landings at fogged-in harbors by landing out to sea, then taxiing the plane into port. Many pilots had merchant marine certifications and radio licenses as well as pilot certificates.

A Pan Am flight captain would normally begin his career years earlier as a radio operator or even mechanic, steadily gaining his licenses and working his way up the flight crew roster to navigator, second officer, and first officer. Before World War II it was not unusual for a captain to make engine repairs at remote locations.

DOWNTURN Fallout from 1973 oil crisis Pan Am had invested in a large fleet of Boeing 747s expecting that air travel would continue to increase. It did not, as the introduction of many wide bodies by Pan Am and its competitors coincided with an economic slowdown. Reduced air travel after the 1973 oil crisis made the overcapacity problem worse. Pan Am was vulnerable, with its high overheads as a result of a large decentralized infrastructure. High fuel prices and its many older, less fuel-efficient narrowbodied airplanes increased the airline's operating costs. Federal route awards to other airlines, such as the Transpacific Route Case, further reduced the number of passengers Pan Am carried and its profit margins.

On September 23, 1974, a group of Pan Am employees published an advertisement in The New York Times to register their disagreement over federal policies which they felt were harming the financial viability of their employer. The ad cited discrepancies in airport landing fees, such as Pan Am paying $4,200 to land a plane in Sydney, while the Australian carrier, Qantas, paid only $178 to land a jet in Los Angeles. The ad also contended that the United States Postal Service was paying foreign airlines five times as much to carry US mail in comparison to Pan Am. Finally, the ad questioned why the Export-Import Bank of the United States loaned money to Japan, France, and Saudi Arabia at 6% interest while Pan Am paid 12%.

By the mid-1970s Pan Am had racked up $364 million of accumulated losses over a 10-year period, and its debts approached $1 billion. This threatened the airline with bankruptcy. Former American Airlines vice president of operations, William T. Seawell, who had replaced Najeeb Halaby as Pan Am president in 1972, began implementing a turnaround strategy: trimming the network by 25%, slashing the 40,000-strong workforce by 30% and cutting wages, introducing stringent economies and rescheduling debt, and reducing the size of the fleet. These measures aided by the use of tax-loss credits enabled Pan Am to avert financial collapse and return to profitability in 1977.

Financial, operational and reputational setbacks Thomas G. Plaskett, a former American Airlines and Continental executive, replaced Acker as president in January 1988 (joining Pan Am from the latter).While a program to refurbish Pan Am aircraft and improve the company's on-time performance began showing positive results (in fact, Pan Am's most profitable quarter ever was the third quarter of 1988), on December 21, 1988, the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 above Lockerbie, Scotland, resulted in 270 fatalities.

Faced with a $300 million lawsuit filed by more than 100 families of the victims, the airline subpoenaed records of six US government agencies, including the CIA, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the State Department. Though the records suggested that the US government was aware of warnings of a bombing and failed to pass the information to the airline, the families claimed Pan Am was attempting to shift the blame.

Also, in December 1988 the FAA fined Pan Am for 19 security failures, out of the 236 that were detected amongst 29 airlines.

The rapid rise of world terrorism, culminating in the tragedy of Lockerbie, was the final deathblow. All the treasures had been sold, many at bargain-basement prices-yet the deficits remained. The end came on 4 December 1991. The airline of many "firsts," a world leader in technology and innovations, was gone, mourned by many across a world that will not see its like again.

Bankruptcy Delta Air Lines purchased the remaining profitable assets of Pan Am, including its remaining European routes (except one from Miami to Paris), and Frankfurt mini hub, the Shuttle operation, 45 jets, and the Pan Am Worldport at John F. Kennedy Airport, for $416 million. Delta also injected $100 million becoming a 45 percent owner of a reorganized but smaller Pan Am serving the Caribbean, Central and South America from a main hub in Miami. The airline's creditors would hold the other 55 percent.

The Boston–New York LaGuardia–Washington National Pan Am Shuttle service was taken over

by Delta in September 1991. Two months later Delta assumed all of Pan Am's remaining transatlantic traffic rights, except Miami to Paris and London.

In October 1991, former Douglas Aircraft executive Russell Ray, Jr. was hired as Pan Am's new president and CEO. As part of this restructuring, Pan Am relocated its headquarters from the Pan Am Building in New York City to new offices in the Miami area in preparation for the airline's relaunch from both Miami and New York on November 1. The new airline would have operated approximately 60 aircraft and generated about $1.2 billion in annual revenues with 7,500 employees. Following the relaunch, Pan Am continued to sustain heavy losses. Revenue throughout October and November 1991 fell short of what had been anticipated in the reorganization plan, with Delta claiming that Pan Am was losing $3 million a day. This undermined Delta's, Wall Street's and the traveling public's confidence in the viability of the reorganized Pan Am. Pan Am ceased operations on December 4, 1991, following a decision by Delta CEO Ron Allen and other senior executives not to go ahead with the final $25 million payment Pan Am was scheduled to receive the weekend after Thanksgiving. As a result, some 7,500 Pan Am employees lost their jobs, thousands of whom had worked in the New York City area and were preparing to move to the Miami area to work at Pan Am's new headquarters near Miami International Airport. Economists predicted that 9,000 jobs in the Miami area, including jobs at companies not connected to Pan Am that were dependent on the airline's presence, would be lost after it folded. The carrier's last flown scheduled operation was Pan Am flight 436 which departed that day from Bridgetown, Barbados at 2 pm (EST) for Miami under the command of Captain Mark Pyle flying Clipper Goodwill, a Boeing 727-200 (N368PA).

Pan Am was the third American major airline to shut down in 1991, after Eastern Air Lines and Midway Airlines.

Under the terms of bankruptcy, the airline's International Flight Academy in Miami was permitted to remain open. It was established as an independent training organization beginning in 1992 under its current name, Pan Am International Flight Academy. The company began operating by using the flight simulation and type rating training center of the defunct Pan Am. In 2006, American Capital Strategies invested $58 million into the academy. Owned by the parent of Japanese airline All Nippon Airways as of October 2014, Pan Am International Flight Academy is the only surviving division of Pan American World Airways.

In popular culture Pan Am held a lofty position in the popular culture of the Cold War era. One of the most famous images in which a Pan Am plane formed a backdrop was the Beatles' February 7, 1964 arrival at John F. Kennedy Airport aboard a Pan Am Boeing 707–321, Clipper Defiance.

From 1964 to 1968 con artist Frank Abagnale, Jr., masqueraded as a Pan Am pilot, dead-heading to many destinations in the cockpit jump seat. He also used Pan Am's preferred hotels, paid the bills with bogus checks, and later cashed fake payroll checks in Pan Am's name. He documented this era in the memoir Catch Me if You Can, which became a film in 2002. Abagnale called Pan Am the "Ritz-Carlton of airlines," and noted that the days of luxury in airline travel were over.

Frank Abagnale

From the Catch Me if You Can

A fictional Pan Am "Space Clipper," a commercial spaceplane called the Orion III, had a prominent role in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey and was featured prominently in one of the movie's posters.

A term used in popular psychology is "Pan American (or Pan Am) Smile." Named after the greeting stewardesses supposedly gave to passengers. It consists of a perfunctory mouth movement without the activity of facial muscles around the eyes that characterizes a genuine smile.

Sources • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am • https://www.businessinsider.com/how-pan-am-went-from-pioneering-air-travel-tobankruptcy-2020-2 • https://www.panam.org/about-pahf/paa-a-brief-history • https://www.deltamuseum.org/exhibits/delta-history/family-tree/pan-am • https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2017/jan/30/pan-am-history-designidentity-book