Revisiting the Ghosts of Airlines Past

Nostalgic for the Pan Am days? You're not alone.

ByABC News
February 14, 2014, 11:05 AM
A Trans World Airlines advertisement from 1953.
A Trans World Airlines advertisement from 1953.
TWA via VintageAdBrowser.com

Feb. 16, 2014— -- Not long ago, I heard someone talking about how much he missed Continental Airlines and asking, "Where did it go, anyway?"

Off to the Great Tarmac in the Sky, thanks to its merger with United a few years back. But look closely at the tails of United's planes -- see that globe logo? That was Continental's. Nice to see one last vestige of a once-great airline.

If you've ever wondered whatever happened to your favorite airline, I've got some answers.

Allegheny Airlines

For some northeast travelers, this gritty Pittsburgh-based carrier will forever be known as "Agony Airlines," though it actually comes from blue-blood stock, founded by members of the DuPont family. The original name (back in the thirties) was All American Airways and in a way, Allegheny has come full circle.

What happened: The little regional grew up, renamed itself US Airways but will soon go back to its "American" roots after American Airlines completes merger housekeeping chores, such as rebranding its newly acquired US Airways planes. There won't even be a tail logo left. But on the other hand, American's recently updated look is not all that different from US Airways' stylized flag motif. So maybe Allegheny does live on in spirit.

Northwest Orient

That was never Northwest's official name but the company added "Orient" to its advertising as a nod to the days when NWA carried more passengers across the Pacific than any other airline. Fun fact: Northwest began as a humble mail delivery service for the post office, ferrying packages and letters between Chicago and the Twin Cities.

What happened: After weathering growing pains, including a two-week long pilot lockout in the 1990s and a bankruptcy in the last decade, Northwest was finally acquired by Delta in 2008. For a revealing trip down memory lane, I highly recommend the Northwest Airlines archive at the Minnesota Historical Society, which includes all kinds of records, ads and even a few letters from famed aviator Amelia Earhart. Nothing sensational in that correspondence, but her letters do reveal Earhart's vast, encyclopedic knowledge of the era's aircraft.

Pan Am

Its full name was Pan American Airways, but to legions of travelers around the globe it will always be Pan Am, the airline that kept expanding and expanding. Its magic is remembered fondly to this day, no doubt helped by the recent TV show Pan Am -- pretty melodramatic but fun to watch. (I asked a former Pan Am flight attendant what she thought of it and was told she and her colleagues were generally way too tired for any extra-curricular hijinks).

What happened: The 1973 oil crisis, lack of domestic routes, increased competition, all contributed to the carrier's problems. So did terrorism: In 1988 a bomb went off aboard Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all on the plane and several on the ground. As Thomas Petzinger wrote in his book, "Hard Landing," people were suddenly afraid to fly: "On the [Pan Am] reservations line, there was silence. In a matter of hours the airline lost half its trans-Atlantic bookings."