Braniff International Airways

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Braniff International Airways was an American pioneering airline that existed from 1928 until 1982. It was one of the oldest air carriers in existence with operations concentrated in the central midwest, South America, Asia and Europe. The airline ceased operations on May 12, 1982, a victim of escalating fuel prices, aggressive expansion, and fierce competition. In 1984, the Hyatt Corporation reorganized the company, and the airline flew again domestically. In 1989, the airline again suffered the fate of bankruptcy protection, this time a victim of a corrupt leveraged buy-out scheme and severe mismanagement. Several thousand employees lost their jobs in the associated bankruptcies.

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Founding and first decades

Braniff International’s history can be traced back to 1928, when an insurance salesman and financier named Thomas E. Braniff financed an aviation company for his brother Paul Revere Braniff. The first Braniff was named Paul R. Braniff, Inc. For the next few years, the airline would be purchased at least twice and ownership would change, but the original Braniff brothers would remain a part of the company.

The Braniff Brothers restarted Braniff in 1930 as Braniff Airways, Inc. During the 1930s Braniff Airways expanded its service throughout the Midwest. Braniff’s long-term survival was assured when Paul Braniff, then General Manager, flew to Washington, D.C., to petition for the Chicago-Dallas airmail route. The United States Post Office granted Braniff an airmail route in 1934, in the wake of the 1934 Air Mail Scandal, thanks to Paul Braniff's effort. In 1935, it was the first airline to fly from Chicago, Illinois, to the U.S.-Mexico border. This is probably where its slogan "From the Great Lakes to the Gulf" originated. Paul Braniff left the airline in 1935 to pursue other interests, and Tom Braniff hired Charles "Chuck" Beard to run the airline's day-to-day operations. Beard would become President and CEO of Braniff in 1954.

In the next few years the airline acquired a number of other airlines, as well as new Douglas DC-2 and Douglas DC-3 aircraft. During the war era, the airline leased some of its fleet to the United States military. Facilities at Dallas Love Field and throughout the country became training sites for pilots and mechanics. During the 1940s, Braniff was allowed by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) to serve the Caribbean, Latin America, and South America. These routes were served by the new and improved Douglas DC-6 aircraft.

During the 1950s the airline expanded nationwide. The acquisition of Mid-Continent Airlines in 1952 allowed Braniff to add several more domestic cities to its already established North-South route system. In 1954, Thomas E. Braniff died in a private plane crash near Shreveport, Louisiana, and Paul R. Braniff died later that year of cancer. Charles "Chuck" Beard became the first non-Braniff President of the colorful carrier after Tom's death. He would lead Braniff into the jet-age, and would be instrumental in turning Braniff into a 95% jet carrier by 1964.

In 1959, Braniff entered the jet age with the introduction of the Boeing 707-227, although it was the only airline to use this variation.

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"The End of the Plain Plane"

In 1965, Braniff's Board hired Executive Vice President Harding L. Lawrence from Continential Airlines to become the new president of Braniff International. Harding sought to transform the otherwise regional carrier into an internationally recognized airline. To overhaul the stanch military image of Braniff (common to most airlines of the time), Lawrence hired Mary Wells, an aspiring Madison Avenue advertising executive. The two executives joined one another both professionally and privately, embarking on a much celebrated and public jet-set romance. Over the next 15 years, Lawrence and Wells would together lead Braniff to a path of record industry performance, revolutionary industry ideas, and an aggressive expansion which would catapult Braniff to the front of the American consciousness - and eventually into bankruptcy.

Wells' rise to fame was founded on an agenda of revamping the perceived "staid" image of Braniff. She called on two internationally famous trendsetters - noted New Mexico native and architect Alexander Girard, and the celebrated Italian fashion designer Emilio Pucci. With this new creative talent, Braniff soon introduced "The End of the Plain Plane" campaign. Planes were painted in colors not normally seen among the dominate red, white and blue paint schemes of the day. The new "jelly bean" fleet consisted of such bold colors as beige, ochre, orange, turquoise, baby blue, medium blue, lemon yellow, and lavender. (Lavender was dropped after one month, as lavender and black were considered bad luck in Mexico.) There were a total of 15 colors used by Braniff for plane exteriors during the 1960s (Harper & George modified Girard's colors in 1968). Many of the colored themes were applied to the aircrafts' interiors, gate lounges, ticket offices, and the corporate headquarters. Art was flown in from Mexico, Latin America, and South America. In 1968, Braniff started an extension of the advertising campaign that showed the likenesses of Andy Warhol, Sonny Liston, the Playboy Bunnies, and other socialites of the time, all embellishing their experiences flying Braniff. It became on of the most celebrated marketing efforts Madison Avenue had ever produced, blending effectively a message of style and arrogance.

Operationally, Braniff continued to aggressively update its aging turboprop fleet. In 1961, Braniff became the launch customer for the British built BAC-111 twin jet. With Lawrence's arrival, Braniff eventually would end up cancelling many of its remaining BAC-111 orders (placed under Charles Beard) in favor of the larger Boeing 727. Braniff eventually ordered several variants of the new Boeing type including the new "quick change" cargo/passenger variant, the stretched -200, and later the -200 Advanced. By the mid 1970s, Braniff operated the largest fleet of Boeing 727s in the world, and pioneered the concept of fleet standardization and the efficiencies that a single type of aircraft could produce.

Throughout the late sixties and through 1978, Braniff remained one of the fastest growing and highly profitable airlines in the United States. But deregulation of the airline industry was to be introduced in 1978, and Braniff under Lawrence would grossly misjudge this new playing field and plot its destiny on a dramatically darker course.

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The BRANwich

In 1971, Braniff chefs revamped the traditional sandwich into a "BRANwich", which was an instant hit with passengers. These were made by wrapping puff pastry around various fillings, rather like beef Wellington. So popular did the BRANwich become that recipes were published in major U.S. magazines.

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1970s redesigns

In 1973, Alexander Calder was commissioned by Braniff to paint an aircraft. His contribution was a Douglas DC-8 known simply as "Flying Colors." In 1975, it was showcased at the Paris Air Show in Paris, France. Its designs reflected the bright colors and simple designs of South America and Latin America, and was used mainly on South American flights. Sadly, it was painted over before the shutdown of the airline in 1982.

Calder did additional work with Braniff as well. In 1975, he debuted "Flying Colors of the United States" to commemorate the Bicentennial of the United States. This time, the airplane was a Boeing 727-200. First Lady Betty Ford dedicated "Flying Colors of the United States" in Washington, D.C., in 1975.

(When Calder died in 1976, he was finishing a third design for Braniff titled "Flying Colors of Mexico." The design was never applied to a Braniff aircraft.)

In 1977, Braniff dropped Pucci as its designer of uniforms and such. American fashion and couture designer Halston was then brought on to bring a more American look back to Braniff. His all-leather looks were applied to uniforms and the new Boeing 727-200s and dubbed the ultra-look. His uniforms and simplistic design were praised by critics and passengers.

Also during the 1970s, Braniff introduced the Boeing 747-100 and services to Asia, Europe and the Americas. The looks and styles were changing. The Douglas DC-8s were being phased out and toward the end of the 70s, there was speculation over the purchase of new McDonnell Douglas MD-80s, Boeing 757s, or Boeing 767s.

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Concorde miscalculation

Image:Concorde.highup.arp.2.750pix.jpgThe Concorde, the world's second supersonic airliner (the first being the Soviet Tupolev Tu-144) was the culmination of an Anglo-French investment between Britain's BAe and France's Aerospatiale. As part of Braniff's supersonic dreams, the airline started service in 1979 between Dallas/Fort Worth and Washington, D.C., to Paris and London on interchange flights with Air France and British Airways. Flights between Dallas/Fort Worth and Washington Dulles airports were commanded by Braniff cockpit and cabin crews (including Braniff captains Glenn Shoop, Ken Larson and Dean Smith) while British or French crews would take over for the remaining segment to Europe. Over U.S. soil, the Concorde was limited to Mach 0.95, though crews often flew just above Mach 1; the planes flew at Mach 2 over open water.

Unfortunately, the Concorde service proved a fiscal disaster for Braniff. Though Braniff initially charged only a $10 premium over standard first-class fare to fly Concorde - and later removed the surcharge altogether - the 100-seat plane often flew with no more than 15 passengers. Meanwhile, Boeing 727s flying the same route were filled routinely. Consequently, Concorde service ended little more than a year after it began.

Although many postcards show a Braniff Concorde, the Braniff livery was never actually applied to any aircraft.

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Bankruptcy

May 12, 1982, was the day Braniff Airways ceased all operations, thus ending 54 years of pioneering service in the American airline industry. N601BN "747 Braniff Place" (aka "The Great Pumpkin" because it was painted orange) actually made the very last Braniff flight from Hawaii to Dallas/Fort Worth on May 13th.

But the final had come the day before on May 11, 1982. The airline's CEO, Howard Putnam, who was President of Southwest Airlines from 1978-1981, left a courtroom at the Federal Courthouse in Brooklyn, New York, after he failed to gain an extension from the airline's principal creditors because of the massive debt built up under the Harding Lawrence regime.

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First reorganization attempt

Jay Pritzker, of Hyatt Hotels, was behind the reorganization of Braniff International and brought it out of bankruptcy in December 1983. Braniff Airways, Inc., was then changed to "Dalfort Corporation" and a "new" Braniff, named Braniff, Inc., was formed as a subsidiary of "Dalfort."

In 1988, the debts were starting to collect. It ordered Fokker F100 aircraft but could never be delivered because of a backup from fellow American carriers American Airlines and US Airways. However, 50 Airbus Industrie A320 aircraft orders were taken over from Pan Am, and in 1989 the first two were introduced and proved very expensive. In order to increase their presence in the Florida market, the airline brought Florida Express Airlines (based in Orlando, Fla.) and assumed operation of their routes and British Aerospace BAC 1-11 aircraft. Oddly, Braniff was again operating some of the same aircraft they disposed of in the 1960s.

Also, during 1989, Braniff moved their headquarters from Dallas, Tex., to Orlando, Fla.

Braniff finally called it quits at the end of December 1990. A buyer was sought, but never found. The company then agreed to liquidate all assets in three separate auctions. America West Airlines bought and still flies the few A320s that were actually delivered to Braniff. Braniff, Inc. actually existed until 1998, when Joe Mitchell and four other employees closed the airline's files.

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Second reorganization attempt

In 1991, Jeffrey Chodorow tried to resurrect the airline with Boeing 727-200s and a lone Douglas DC-9, but his fledging "Braniff III" only lasted a year.

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Other facts of interest

  • In 1981, Braniff dedicated a Boeing 727-227 with the colors of the Dallas Cowboys, an American football team that chartered the airplane for road games. The airplane featured a Cowboys helmet on its tail section. The Cowboys had been a loyal customer of Braniff throughout the 1970s.
  • The remains of the original Braniff are retained by a company named "Asworth" in Dallas. Asworth was formed out of the old "Dalfort" corporation (which was Braniff's holding company in the 1980s). Asworth is currently responsible for paying pilot pensions.
  • Many Braniff groups are still active today.
Including:
  • The Retired Pilots, "The Braniff International Silver Eagles"
  • The Retired Hostess Organization, "The Clipped-B's"
  • The Braniff Retirement Club (Based in Dallas)
  • The Braniff Family Annual North Texas Reunion Organization
  • Braniff/Mid-Continent Reunion Club (who have met every year in Minnesota since 1978)
  • A portion of an old Braniff ad appears after the end credits (where production company logos normally go) of every episode of South Park. However, in 2001, the New York "Trust" that still owns the Braniff Trademarks informed South Park Studios to not use "Braniff" in any other formats. The 12 note riff played on top of this ad during earlier South Park episodes is from a song, "Shpadoinkle Day" from Trey Parker's collegiate film project, "Alferd Packer: The Musical" (a.k.a. Cannibal! The Musical). The lyrics associated with those notes are "The sky is blue / and all the leaves are green."
  • Braniff International items with the now-infamous "BI" logo on them such as playing cards, posters, air schedules, airplane models, pins and servingware have in recent years become hot collectibles for those interested in bi/bisexual paraphernalia, especially the rainbow "BI" Braniff colors.
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