Never had the chance to fly Pan Am? Well, for $297 you can get a ride in their first class cabin... sort of. Air Hollywood, which is the largest aviation themed studio for movies and TV shows, is putting on a Pan Am Experience. Here's how it's described:
Continue reading: The Pan Am Experience At Air Hollywood
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
@tom Basically they had invested in a large 747 fleet, but the 1973 oil crisis hit, causing fuel prices to skyrocket, fares to rise, thus lower loads on the now more expensive to operate 747's. This event marked the beginning of the end. Their finances took a major hit, so they thought explaining domestically would make money for them. (they didn't have a domestic network, because the other airlines convinced the regulators that the airline would create a monopoly if it flew domestically too) To get domestic routes, they had to buy national airlines, who had a domestic network they could use. The merger went bad, sending them into more debt. To pay off their growing debt, they sold off large sections of their international route network, but that just caused more lost revenue. The 1988 Lockerbie bombing, and a multitude of safety ratings caused passengers to avoid them. In 1991, Iraq invalided Kuwait causing oil prices to skyrocket again, making their aging, fuel inefficient fleet more expensive to operate, especially with their low loads, (as passengers were trying to avoid them) which was the final nail into the coffin for Pan Am. They finally went out 21 days before the Soviet Union did on 4 December 1991. Currently delta has many of their assets, including the delta shuttle, and many of their new recruits, who are now senior delta employees.
1988 Lockerbie disaster & then the Gulf War. Delta Air Lines purchased the remaining profitable assets of Pan Am, including its remaining European routes and Frankfurt mini hub, the Shuttle operation, 45 jets, and the Pan Am Worldport at John F. Kennedy Airport, for $416 million January 1991.
Tom, the 80's were not kind to Pan Am, which had a legacy cost structure and was trying to compete against start-up airlines that did not. It sold itself off in bits and pieces over the decade until there was hardly anything left by 1990. The recession brought on by the Gulf War dealt the final blow.
I flew Pan Am quite a bit in the early 80's, including 747's with the "Sleeperette Seats". I never thought it was that great.
Thanks john. I have good memories of it. I flew it to Russia once, to Nice many times, to Paris, Rome,Milan and domestically though it had limited domestic routes. Flew the NY Washington shuttle frequently. There was a planned merger with American at one time. The two even merged their frequent flyer programs. But that fell through, why I don't know. Those foreign destinations like nice and Moscow went to delta instead.
Or you could try and hang out in Antony Toth's garage
http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB125650482699406669
My original message has links - so is awaiting moderation... but in the meantime - google Anthony Toth ...
I think that it is his plane. There is a Bing video ("Homemade 747") showing the plane that he built and at the end he mentions that he rents it out to film studios; so I think that it might be the same one....
In 1981 my partner and I flew round-trip LAX-LHR on A Pan Am 747 with the sleeperette seats. 5 windows across when fully flat. Cracked crab on the way to London, caviar on the way back. Ringo Starr was in the cabin on the way back. And to top it off, it was a 2 for 1 sale.
Can anyone explain, clearly and cogently, why Pan Am (the tv show failed) failed?
Have to agree with John that these seats were not that great. Lucky might give them a C at best in the hard product rating. Compared to Emirates A380 in F, they are (were) rubbish. I found them to be hard and uncomfortable. First started flying them across the Pacific in the 70's on the 747SP. By mid 80's, service had deteriorated such that I started flying Qantas. Last flight on them was Rome to JFK in 1988 in business class and the service was nonexistent. By that time, the glamor had long gone.
Terrorism is a large part of why the airline failed...TWA went under too after their tragic hijacking. It's just too costly.
Well I worked as a flight attendant for PAA from 1972 to 1985 and my observations of it's demise is a bit different. We witnessed the steady disintegration over several years of really incompetent management.
Stories abound about them putting PanAm money in the Caymens. They neglected maintenance resulting in months of commonly known mechanical shutdowns around the world. I was crew on several of those breakdowns.
I think greed and incompetence killed Pan Am. The poor decision to buy National Airlines was a financial disaster. I don't the any of he world "events" mentioned did it so much as the idiots stealing the airline for personal gain.
My name is Sherri and I don't know who I should address this to but perhaps you can direct me to right person.
My husband was an employee of Pan Am from approx. 1961 until it went belly up.
I have flight bags,signs and odds and ends. If you know anyone interested I would love to hear from you. I would assemble what I have and take a picture and write more of an accurate account.
I heard Anthony on a morning show last week and thought what a wonderful idea .
Thank you,
Sherri
I had done this before, and it was okay -- somewhat awkward with mediocre food -- but my 8-year-old son really wanted to do it, so I made reservations. Sadly, we had an unexpected death in the family, and now we need to leave town to attend the funeral. Management refused to extend absolutely any accommodation for us (even sent an in-between to deliver the message), so now I am out $950 and need to explain to my grieving son why we can't be rescheduled.