CroFlight From Croatia, joined Jul 2001, 275 posts, RR: 1 Reply 1, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 6 days 1 hour ago) and read 1194 times:
Working for PanAm here in ZAG - Croatia was the first "real" job in my life, and my first contact with aviation.
Therefore, I will keep my nice memories of what was once the greatest world's airline for the whole my life.
Matt D From United States of America, joined Nov 1999, 9502 posts, RR: 51 Reply 2, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 6 days 1 hour ago) and read 1180 times:
Pan Am was THE world leader in its day. But sadly, due to mismanagement and their inability to change with the times (and yes, unfortunately-their own arrogance and incompetence), they died off from a long, slow, painful cancer.
What's even sadder is the fact that most users on this forum are too young to have any meaningful recollection of the ORIGINAL Pan Am. Not the Marty Shugrue or David Fink Pan Am "Knock-offs".
The last original PA Clipper I saw was in August of 1991, at LAX. A 727. I never returned to LAX before they died.
LoneStarMike From United States of America, joined Jul 2000, 3654 posts, RR: 38 Reply 3, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 6 days ago) and read 1174 times:
I only flew Pan Am once. It was May 21, 1973 on flight 100 from JFK-LHR. It was a daytime flight which left JFK at 10:00 a.m. and arrived in London at 9:40 p.m.
I was traveling with my grandparents who were going to Germany on a business trip. I was 13 at the time. It was one of the few times I've been in First Class.
It's been so long, but I seem to remember the particular area in which we were seated was like a compartment. It had two rear-facing seats and two forward facing seas. There was another man in the compartment with us, but he moved to another seat after we took off. (I guess he didn't like teenagers )
I remember the stewardesses (they weren't called flight attendants back then) wore those powder blue uniforms with the derby hats. I don't remember what all we ate, but I do remember for dessert they served these really good miniature cakes called petite-fours (sp?). I raved about them so much that when we landed, the stewardess gave me 4 boxes to take with me.
It was a neat trip. It was only my second time to be in a 747 and when we returned to the US three weeks later, it was on the S.S. France. It was probably the most glamorous trip I ever went on in my life.
727LOVER From United States of America, joined Oct 2001, 5770 posts, RR: 20 Reply 4, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 5 days 21 hours ago) and read 1146 times:
The greatest airline ever, and only 3 responses???!!!
RayChuang From United States of America, joined Jun 2000, 7716 posts, RR: 5 Reply 5, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 5 days 21 hours ago) and read 1141 times:
I remember flying Pan Am for the first time in 1970 on a 747-100, no less!
This was when PA was flying HKG-TYO-SFO with the 741. I remember flying at the front of Coach class and really enjoyed the flight with great food, a movie, and I even got a coloring book (I still have the book and it's unmarked in very good condition--I wonder how much it'll fetch at an airline memorabilia show ).
SQ325 From Germany, joined Jul 2001, 1437 posts, RR: 8 Reply 6, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 5 days 21 hours ago) and read 1138 times:
I have been a lot on PA planes. Always had a great time on board. My step father worked for them 20 years. PanAm was one of the greatests Airlines ever!
Aerokid From Belgium, joined Jun 2000, 348 posts, RR: 1 Reply 8, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 5 days 21 hours ago) and read 1118 times:
I'm too young to have withnessed Pan Am in their glory days (like someone pointed out earlier). Sad enough, the earliest memory I have about them is Lockerbie. But from what I know, it was indeed one of the greatest airlines of all times, if not the greatest.
I just bought a Herpa Wings 1/500 Pan Am Boeing 747-100 model and I can assure you that I'll reserve a special place for it in my collection!
Ceilidh From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 9, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 5 days 21 hours ago) and read 1112 times:
The first flight I had with Pan Am was from LOS to JFK via ROB on a B707 N491PA "Clipper Chariot of Fame" on the 30th November 1978 - just over 23 years ago!
I flew with them many times subsequently, and in fact was booked to travel on PA103 on the 21 December 1987. Flew BA instead and didn't realise how close I'd come to being blown up until the following morning when I switched on my TV.
Flown a bit with Pan Am III as well - which I'm convinced will be a survivor.
BostonBeau From United States of America, joined Sep 2000, 459 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 5 days 17 hours ago) and read 1085 times:
How about all those great Pan Am radio and TV commercials too. I remember getting excited every spring, when it was time for the summer schedule to Europe increase at Boston to go into effect, when they would advertize heavily on the radio. I'm sure people remember the original "Pan Am Makes The Going Great" jingle from the 60s. Many Pan Am radio ads barely mentioned the airline's name...they just got you in the mood to travel with clever lyrics.
LoneStarMike From United States of America, joined Jul 2000, 3654 posts, RR: 38 Reply 13, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 5 days 16 hours ago) and read 1064 times:
Here's some old Pam Am ads from the early 1940's:
America meets the challenge of a changing world. Pan American Airways 1940. Notice the US Flag in the picture. It only has 48 stars.
MD-87ER From Austria, joined Aug 2001, 153 posts, RR: 0 Reply 14, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 5 days 15 hours ago) and read 1038 times:
My Grandfather worked for PA here in Austria, right after WW2. (PA was the first airline to offer service from Austria after the war) Sadly, I never got the opportunity to fly them, though Í believe their slogan
"The world's most experienced airline"
Just found an old Germany-timetable from 1974:
PA 1 (747): Tokio-HongKong-Bangkok-NewDelhi-Karachi-Beirut-Istanbul-Frankfurt-London-JFK
ATA L1011 From United States of America, joined Feb 2001, 1362 posts, RR: 7 Reply 15, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 5 days 14 hours ago) and read 1024 times:
Searpqx From Netherlands, joined Jun 2000, 4343 posts, RR: 12 Reply 16, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 5 days 14 hours ago) and read 1014 times:
My first experience with PanAm was from SFO - SEA leg of the SFO-LHR flight in 1982, 747-100 (I think, could've been a 200). I was just out of the military, and I spent the entire flight daydreaming (and scheming) about what it would be like to stay on the plane and go on to London.
My last experience was an indirect one, on 12/3/91. I was working for AA and had gone to Buenos Aires on a business trip. We were supposed to come home on the night that PA shut down, but even on Pos Space business passes, there wasn't a snowball's chance in .... of getting on AA. I spent three days trying to get out. The night we finally made it out it was sorta sad to look over and see the PA counter dark with garbage scattered around.
"The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity"
Boeingfan From United States of America, joined Aug 2001, 385 posts, RR: 1 Reply 19, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 5 days 8 hours ago) and read 952 times:
Long live the memories of those who flew the skies of Pan American World Airways.
VirginA340 From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 15 posts, RR: 0 Reply 20, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 5 days 7 hours ago) and read 955 times:
It's quite interesting that when you look at the 1970s routemap on www.panamair.org you'll notice that PA had many routes going to and from the US to Europe, US-Carribean and quite a few US-South America but not as much as the Carribean or Europe. But the Pacific Mideast and Asian routes look bare with two or three of the redlines going to the destiantions compared to the many lines you see in the places I listed. It looks to me that NWA was way stronger in the Pac than PA was. It looks to me that TWA was stronger in Europe and the Mideast. I have a route map of TW around that time but this was after their RTW flights were axed.
CroFlight From Croatia, joined Jul 2001, 275 posts, RR: 1 Reply 21, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 5 days 7 hours ago) and read 941 times:
I just want to remind you all about PanAm's contribution in both "Space oddisey" movies...
In "2001" you can see PanAm's interplanetar aircraft on a regular flight between the earth and space station in the earth's orbit...
In "2010" there is a commercial on a TV screen behind the woman speaking on a videophone... It shows PanAm's aircrafts, smiling crew and the famous sentence: "The sky is not longer the limit!"
At the time the movies appeared, nobody would think that there won't be any PanAm at 2001, or 2010... By the way, as far as I know, it costed quite a lot money to have a commercial in those movies...
Also, when PanAm's bancruptcy was announced in spring 1991, CNN used the clip from "2001"...
LoneStarMike From United States of America, joined Jul 2000, 3654 posts, RR: 38 Reply 23, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 916 times:
This is kind of veering off-topic a bit, but I just saw this article today and thought it was so ironic.
Nearly 10 years to the day that the original Pan Am went out of business, the current Pan Am flew it's last flight out of Mid America Airport.
From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Pam An quietly ends service to Mid America Airport 12/03/2001
Jaysit From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 24, posted (11 years 6 months 2 weeks 4 days 22 hours ago) and read 906 times:
My Dad worked for Exxon and we were posted in several different places, so we had to fly either PanAm, TWA or Air India (AI because we held Indian passports at the time). In the 1970s all three were fabulous airlines, especially in First Class. There were no PTVS, flat bed seats, lap top ports, etc, but the food was great, the service exceptional and the whole flying experience involved lots of style. The PanAm hostesses had the best uniforms - those sky blue knit suits were great. I still remember a Norwegian FA on a 707 flight from JFK to London in the early 70s. Her name was Olga, she looked like a fashion model and seemed to epitomize glamor and style, and provided me with an endless supply of Wrigleys chewing gum in First Class. Years later in 1988 I saw a picture of a FA named Olga in the NYTimes - apparently she was one of PA103's casualties. I'm not sure if she was the same air hostess of my childhood, but she sure looked like it.
My last flight on PanAm was on a 747-200 in about 1990 from Frankfurt to JFK in coach. I believe it was Clipper Ocean Pearl painted in the billboard style. The flight was ho hum, the service indicative of the declining levels of service on most US based carriers, and the JFK Worldport was deplorable and dirty. However, some of PA's now ageing FAs still had that air of glamor about them. They had been around the world, seen it all, done it all.
I wish PanAm were still around. That blue globe epitomized air travel,not only for Americans, but for the whole world.
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