Braniff International Airways

Braniff International Airways was a Dallas-based US trunk carrier that grew from a 1928 Oklahoma City–Tulsa service into a brightly painted airline serving the Americas, Europe and Asia. After deregulation, high fuel costs, heavy competition and a failed fare strategy, it stopped flying on 12 May 1982. Two later airlines used the name, and both also failed.

How it started

According to Wikipedia's history of the airline, insurance businessman Thomas Elmer Braniff financed a company with his brother Paul in May 1928. Service began on 20 June 1928 between Oklahoma City and Tulsa, using a single-engine, five-passenger Stinson Detroiter. That first company did not last. The brothers started Braniff Airways in November 1930, flying Lockheed Vega aircraft between Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Wichita Falls. Sources therefore give both 1928 and 1930 as the founding year.

Chicago, Kansas City and St Louis were added in 1931. The company shut briefly in 1933 to reorganise, and staff agreed to work unpaid to keep it going. An airmail route from Chicago to Dallas followed in 1934, and the takeovers of Long and Harmon Airlines (1935) and Bowen Airlines (1936) enlarged its Texas network.

The heyday

In May 1946 the Civil Aeronautics Board awarded Braniff routes to the Caribbean, Mexico and South America. Flights to South America began in June 1948, reaching Buenos Aires in 1950, and the airline took the name Braniff International Airways.

The airline's most distinctive period began when Harding Lawrence became president. He hired an advertising team led by Mary Wells, with architect Alexander Girard and designer Emilio Pucci. Their "End of the Plain Plane" campaign replaced the red, white and blue livery with a single bright colour on each aircraft. Braniff became all-jet in 1969, and the Boeing 727 became the backbone of the fleet. By 1975 it operated 70 727s, 11 DC-8s and one 747. It also took part in planning Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

After the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act, Braniff expanded fast. In 1979 it added international hubs at Boston and Los Angeles, with Boeing 747 flights to Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt and Paris, and across the Pacific to Guam, Seoul, Hong Kong and Singapore. A peak fleet figure is not given in the sources we found.

What went wrong

Wikipedia's account lists several causes, which built on one another:

• Fuel costs rose 94 percent during 1979.
• Some expected international traffic never appeared. The Boston 747 flights did poorly, and the transatlantic flights from Dallas/Fort Worth to London were dropped.
• The 1981 air traffic controllers' strike caused delays and losses.
• Two fare campaigns in late 1981 failed. "Braniff Strikes Back" pushed business travellers to rivals that kept first class. Under new president Howard Putnam, "Texas Class" removed first class on most flights, and monthly revenue fell from just over $100 million to $80 million in December 1981.
• American and Delta, both with hubs at Dallas/Fort Worth, took more traffic.

The Civil Aeronautics Board refused to approve a sale of the Latin American routes to Pan Am. It did approve a one-year lease to Eastern, for $18 million, on 26 April 1982. EBSCO describes Braniff as the eighth-largest US airline when it ran out of money.

The last flight

On 11 May 1982 Putnam failed to win a court order to stop a threatened pilot strike, though he did obtain more time from creditors. Braniff ceased all operations the next day, 12 May. Simple Flying reports that its 9,500 employees were told not to report for work the following day. Passengers at Dallas/Fort Worth were told to leave their aircraft.

Wikipedia reports that Flight 501, a 747 to Honolulu, still departed as scheduled. It returned to Dallas/Fort Worth the next morning, 13 May, as the last scheduled Braniff flight. Our record's 1982 date is confirmed.

What happened next

Eastern took over the South American routes earlier than planned. It never made a profit on them and sold them to American Airlines in 1990 for $349 million. The DC-8-62 fleet was flown to Love Field and stored until new owners could be found.

Under a bankruptcy reorganisation involving Hyatt, a new Braniff, Inc. began flying on 1 March 1984. It collapsed in 1989. A third Braniff, set up in 1991 by Jeffrey Chodorow's company, was dissolved in 1992. Former staff also founded Sun Country Airlines in 1983 and, in 1984, Fort Worth Airlines, which stopped flying in 1985. The Braniff name survives today as a branding and licensing business.

Sources: Wikipedia: History of Braniff International Airways, Wikipedia: Braniff International Airways, EBSCO: Braniff International Suspends Flight Operations, Simple Flying: Why Braniff ceased operations