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Pan American Airways flew from 1927 to 1991. It began with a contract to carry mail from Key West to Havana and ended on December 4, 1991, when a Boeing 727 from Barbados landed in Miami. In between it opened scheduled air service across the Pacific and the Atlantic, became the first American airline to fly jets and flew the first commercial Boeing 747 service.
This page is the timeline of the company and the map of the series; each part tells one chapter in depth.
How did a mail contract become an airline?
Pan Am was born in a hurry. In the autumn of 1927 it had to fly the mail from Key West to Havana by October 19 or lose its Foreign Air Mail contract. A seaplane chartered at the last minute delivered 250 pounds of mail, and the company's founder, Juan Trippe, was 28 years old (Pan Am Historical Foundation). In January 1928 the first paying passengers made the same 90-mile trip in one hour and ten minutes. That year Trippe brought in Charles Lindbergh, who stayed on the board as a technical adviser for 45 years.
In the 1930s Pan Am spread across the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central and South America, building its own airfields, weather stations and radio aids along the way. Its flying boats were called Clippers, and every later Pan Am aircraft carried the name. On November 22, 1935, the Martin M-130 China Clipper opened the first scheduled airmail service across the Pacific, from San Francisco to Manila. Passenger flights followed a year later. A one-way ticket cost $799, the crossing took 60 flying hours spread over six days, and the flying boats rarely carried more than eight passengers(<Smithsonian>). In May 1939 the Boeing 314 Yankee Clipper opened scheduled transatlantic airmail, and a month later the Dixie Clipper carried the first transatlantic passengers.
Why did Pan Am lose its exclusive rights?
Before the Second World War Pan Am was the only American international airline. The price of that position was a ban on flying inside the United States, which lasted until 1978. After the war Presidents Roosevelt and Truman wanted several American airlines abroad, and TWA, Northwest Orient and Braniff followed Pan Am overseas.
Pan Am kept growing anyway. During the war it flew more than 90 million miles for the U.S. war effort and built 50 airports in 15 countries. By 1947 it employed 19,000 people in 62 countries, and by the end of the decade it flew around the world and sold cheaper fares.
In October 1958 a Pan Am Boeing 707, Clipper America, left New York for Paris, and flying times were cut in half. Trippe had ordered both early American jetliners, the Boeing 707 and the Douglas DC-8. In the 1960s Pan Am introduced the first computerized global reservation system, moved into the 59-story Pan Am Building and appeared in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Trippe retired in 1968.
What happened after the 747?
The first commercial Boeing 747 flight was a Pan Am service from New York that arrived in London on January 22, 1970. An engine failure kept the scheduled aircraft on the ground, and a spare, N736PA, flew the trip under the name Clipper Young America. From 1976 Pan Am's 747SPs flew nonstop from New York to Tokyo and from San Francisco to Hong Kong. In 1973 the company opened its expanded Worldport terminal at JFK in the middle of the oil embargo.
The decline that followed is the subject of Why Pan Am failed: no domestic network when deregulation came in 1978, the costly purchase of National in 1980, the sale of the skyscraper, the hotels, the Pacific and London, the Lockerbie bombing in 1988, bankruptcy in January 1991 and the shutdown in December.
Timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1927 | Juan Trippe's Pan American Airways flies its first mail from Key West to Havana |
| 1928 | First paying passengers, 90 miles in one hour and ten minutes |
| 1935 | The China Clipper opens scheduled airmail across the Pacific |
| 1939 | Scheduled mail and passenger service across the Atlantic on the Boeing 314 |
| 1945-1950 | Exclusive overseas rights end; TWA, Northwest and Braniff fly abroad |
| 1958 | Boeing 707 Clipper America flies New York to Paris |
| 1963 | The Pan Am Building opens on Park Avenue |
| 1968 | Juan Trippe retires |
| 1970 | First commercial Boeing 747 flight, New York to London |
| 1973 | Worldport at JFK opens during the oil embargo |
| 1978 | Airline Deregulation Act |
| 1980 | Pan Am buys National Airlines |
| 1980-1981 | The Pan Am Building and the Inter-Continental hotels are sold |
| 1985-1986 | The Pacific division goes to United |
| 1988 | Flight 103 is destroyed over Lockerbie |
| 1991 | Bankruptcy in January, Delta takes the Atlantic, last flight on December 4 |
What is left of Pan Am?
By the time Pan Am closed, the Smithsonian notes, the United States had a fully developed international airline industry. The name did not stay on its building. Nine months after the shutdown MetLife removed the Pan Am letters, creditors sold the globe logo at auction in 1993, and the Worldport terminal at JFK was demolished in 2013. The company's papers survived. At the bankruptcy auction the Pan Am Historical Foundation and the University of Miami bought more than 85,000 boxes of records, and 7,385 of them were kept (University of Miami Libraries).
Parts of the series
- Why Pan Am failed
Pan Am died slowly: no US domestic routes, the costly National deal, a decade of asset sales, Lockerbie, the 1990 fuel spike and Delta's exit in December 1991.
Fly an airline of 1965
- Era: Jet Boom, 1965
- Base: New York, JFK
- In the catalog: Boeing 707-320B, from 1962
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Sources
- University of Miami Libraries. Cleared to Land: The Records of Pan American World Airways, Inc. Corporate History (online exhibit, 2011). Source checked:
- Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Pan American Airways and International Commercial Aviation (America by Air online exhibit). Source checked:
- Pan Am Historical Foundation. My Flight to London on The Queen of the Skies (undated). Source checked:
- Pan Am Historical Foundation. The Worldport Dedication, December 5, 1973 (undated). Source checked:
- International Directory of Company Histories, Vol. 12 (St. James Press). Pan American World Airways, Inc. (1996). Source checked:
- Public Law 95-504, Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, 92 Stat. 1705 (October 24, 1978). Source checked:
- Airways Magazine. Pan Am Acquires National Airlines (January 7, 2025). Source checked:
- University of Miami Libraries. Finding aid ASM0341, Pan American World Airways, Inc. Records (2014). Source checked:
- Pan Am Historical Foundation. The Pan Am Building in New York City (undated). Source checked:
- UPI. Pan Am sells hotel subsidiary to London firm (Wayback Machine copy) (August 21, 1981). Source checked:
- Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. John G. Roberts Files, Box 17: DOT order on Pan American routes (1985). Source checked:
- Airways Magazine. United Purchase of Pan Am's Pacific Division (April 22, 2024). Source checked:
- Air Accidents Investigation Branch. Aircraft Accident Report 2/90: Boeing 747-121 N739PA at Lockerbie, 21 December 1988 (1990). Source checked:
- Associated Press. Pan Am grounded - permanently (Deseret News) (December 5, 1991). Source checked:
- Associated Press. Pan Am cites losses, fuel prices in filing for bankruptcy (Deseret News) (January 8, 1991). Source checked:
- UPI. Judge OKs Delta bid for Pan Am (The Christian Science Monitor) (August 14, 1991). Source checked:
- Pan Am Historical Foundation. About the Pan Am Eras (undated). Source checked:
- SFO Museum. Instagram archive, post of December 5, 2019 (December 5, 2019). Source checked:
- Airways Magazine. Pan Am's Final Flight (December 4, 2024). Source checked:
- The Christian Science Monitor. For the Record (July 29, 1980). Source checked:
- Associated Press. Air pioneer Pan Am lands in bankruptcy, with Pan Am: A chronology (St. Petersburg Times) (January 9, 1991). Source checked:
- The Christian Science Monitor. Pan Am Seeks Way Out of Woods (January 10, 1991). Source checked:
- Airways Magazine. Boeing 747 Enters Revenue Service (undated). Source checked:
- This Day in Aviation. 22 January 1970 (undated). Source checked:
This text was generated by AI and reviewed by a Jetopolis editor. The person or team responsible for publication is named in the byline. Sources and the review date are provided in the article. Game parameters are distinguished from historical facts.