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Hundreds of Flights Delayed Nationwide as Fire on Board United Aircraft Results in Emergency Landing at Newark Airport
A United Express aircraft taking off from Newark prior to the outage A fire broke out in the cabin of a
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Source: Frequent Business Traveler
NEW YORK, December 4, 1991—Pan Am took its last gasp on Tuesday, two days after Delta Air Lines suddenly backed out of a financing agreement meant to keep it afloat, too weak to attempt another comeback. The World’s Most Experienced Airline was survived by over 7,500 employees and its end came almost 11 months after Eastern Airlines suddenly stopped flying on January 19, 1991. It was also survived by its competitor, Trans World Airlines, which ended operations ten years later in April 2001, when its assets were acquired by American Airlines in bankruptcy court. Pan American World Airway’s rise and fall in the half century before it ceased operations in 1991 tracked that of other once-prosperous American industries. The airline found itself unable to compete after the industry was deregulated in 1978. It was forced to sell multiple assets including its headquarters building, the Pan Am Building, now the Met Life Building, above Park Avenue and Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan, its Pacific operations, this to United Airlines, and last year its London routes, this to American Airlines. [caption id="attachment_79873" align="aligncenter" width="590"] The Pan Am (now MetLife ) Building looms large over Grand Central Terminal[/caption] After spending most of the year trying to emerge from bankruptcy court, Pan Am World Airways ceased operations on December 4, 1991, after Delta Air Lines withdrew a funding commitment it had made as part of the purchase of Pan Am’s European routes and Northeast shuttle earlier in the year. America’s Airline to the World, as one of its long-time slogans went, had filed for bankruptcy on January 8, 1991. It took pains to reassure ticket holders that they would not be affected by the filing, the company’s leadership said at the time. Pan Am sales representatives spent that morning assuring travel agents across the globe that flight service would continue without interruption. In addition, the carrier said that the nearly one million members of Pan Am’s World Pass frequent-flyer program would also not be affected. “All of your miles are protected,” said Thomas G. Plaskett, the airline’s CEO at the time of the bankruptcy filing. “The frequent-flyer program stays in place.” But more severe measures were needed if the airline were to have a chance at surviving as even a shadow of its former self. In a move that all but indicated that the airline was giving up its bid for long-term survival, management, on July 12, 1991, agreed to sell its European, Asian, and African operations to Delta Air Lines. The $260 million deal also included the Pan Am Shuttle. In late November of the same year, the airline posted a $150.3 million loss for the third quarter, compared with a $29.2 million loss in the same period in the prior year. At that point, as the company sought to emerge from bankruptcy, it was seeking to become a smaller carrier that would concentrate on serving Latin America. On November 26, Trans World Airlines said it had agreed to acquire the assets of Pan Am Express, a commuter airline operating out of John F. Kennedy International and Miami International airports. The $28 million deal was intended to expand its domestic service from JFK while also feeding passengers to Pan Am’s Latin American operations. That deal never took place and one week later, Delta yanked the financing it had promised Pan Am earlier in the year, thereby sounding its death knell. (Photo: Accura Media Group)
NEW YORK, December 4, 1991—Pan Am took its last gasp on Tuesday, two days after Delta Air Lines suddenly backed
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Source: Frequent Business Traveler
