Photos © R.Leeuw
Photos © R.Leeuw
Ceased operations: 12May82 (Nov89 & 02Jul92)
Homebase: Dallas,TX (Orlando,FL)
Founded: 1930 (1984 & 1991)
ICAO callsign: Braniff
Flightnbr prefix: BN / BNF
Operations: passengers
It al started in 1928 when Paul and Tom Braniff began a service between Tulsa and Oklahoma City; Paul was the pilot and Tom took care of business. It was not a success and they sold it. But in 1930 they tried again and set up Braniff Airways; the postal services granted some routes. In 1937 Douglas DC-2s were intorduced, followed by DC-3s 2 years later.
In 1941 headquarters moved to Dallas,TX. Immediately after WW2 routes expanded into Mexico. On 04th of June 1948 the first Douglas DC-6 took off for a flight from Houston to Havana and onward to Pima,Peru. Thus the company's name was changed to Braniff International Airways. More destinations in South America were added, while domestically Braniff expanded thru the purchase of Mid-Continent Airlines.
Lockheed L.188 Electras were added to the fleet in 1959 and the first jet, the Boeing 707, followed in in December of that year; the 707 was used on its S.America routes. Another milestone in 1959 was introduced by the "Flying Colors" campaign: all aircraft were painted in up to 9 different variations of colourschemes; the 2 most famous were the Boeing 727 and Douglas DC-8 painted by artist Alexander Calder. Talk about Braniff and everybody remembers the "Flying Colors" ! Braniff sought advise from an advertising agency to change its image into something dynamic and Mary Wells came up with the "end of the plain planes" campaign. She later became the wife of Lawrence Harding, Braniff's CEO from 1965 - 1980.
With the takeover of Pan American Grace Airways on 01Feb67, Braniff became market leader in South American Services: PANAGRA had had a monopoly of traffic between Panama and Chile, and to Buenos Aires - USA. The takeover included Panagra's DC-8s.
Following the policy of air traffic deregulation in the USA, in 1978, Braniff expanded aggressively and started operating Trans-Atlantic flights to London, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Frankfurt. Further expansion to Hawaii and Guam followed. For these long-haul flights Boeing 747s (nicknamed "the Big Orange") and 747SPs were added, while also more DC-8s joined the fleet. Even the Concorde flew for a short period for Braniff !
The recession in the early-1980s, with high fuel prices, hit Braniff hard as the expansion was targeted on the long-haul routes. Mounting losses could not be countered with lay-offs and route cancellations. Braniff ceased to operate on 12May82.
The Hyatt company bought Braniff out of this bankruptcy and a new Braniff emerged in 1984; the fleet only consisted out of Boeing 727s and the route network was limited to US domestic services. The start up was not without problems and after 6 months the company was configured to a "low-cost operator".
In 1989 Florida Express, based in Orlando (FL), was taken over. By taking over Pan Am's order for up to 50 Airbus A320s, BN became the first operator of this
type in the USA. But when 16 had been delivered, Braniff again ceased operations on 06Nov89.
But another comeback was staged, re-introducing the "Flying Colors"-theme and the brightly painted Braniff airplanes once again took to the skies. But this lasted from 01Jul91 untill 02Jul92, mainly under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and only then Braniff Int'l was permanently layed to rest.
A few images on Airliners.net:
DC-8 N1806, blue m/s, Toronto 1981
747 "Big Orange" London-Gatwick 1980
727 N274WC in "ordinary c/s", Las Vegas 1987
Martin Suter sent me a very nice series of contemporary advertisements: 1961 "Braniff Super Jets to
South America" magazine ad
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More on Braniff's history: www.braniffinternational.org/
Sources:
Fleet info: JP Airline Fleets 1990
"Airlines Remembered" by B.I.Hengi (Midland Publishing, 1999).
Recommended reading: "Airline Pasionado" (subtitled "Before, Braniff and After"), by Robert C. Booth (Paladwr Press, 1998).
