Braniff Air Lines, Inc. In April 1926,
Paul Revere Braniff incorporated Braniff Air Lines, Inc., which was a planned flight school and aircraft maintenance entity that never came to fruition. However, the name and company were retained by his brother, Thomas Elmer Braniff, and him until 1932.
Oklahoma Aero Club In 1927, Paul R. Braniff, his brother Thomas, and several investors formed Oklahoma Aero Club to fly the founding executives using a
Stinson Detroiter, purchased by Paul Braniff, registered as NC1929, on hunting, fishing, and business trips. Paul Braniff was the sole pilot, and flew the investors to their meetings. These included Frank Phillips, founder of Phillips Petroleum; E. E. Westervelt, manager of Southwest Bell Telephone; Fred Jones, Ford dealership owner; Virgil Browne of Coca-Cola Company; and Walter A. Lybrand, an Oklahoma City attorney. Scheduling conflicts between the executives caused the new venture to be disbanded. Eventually, the Braniff brothers, Mr. Lybrand, and Mr. Westervelt bought out the interests of the other investors. Braniff Airlines, Inc., and the carrier grew by adding service from Oklahoma City to San Angelo, Texas, with intermediate stops at Wichita Falls, Breckenridge, and Abilene, Texas, by the summer of 1929 and service at Denison, Texas, was added on July 5, 1929. An additional route was operated between Oklahoma City and Ft. Worth with intermediate stops at Wewoka, Oklahoma, and Dallas Love Field and a third route operated between Oklahoma City and Tulsa with intermediates stops at Wewoka and Seminole, Oklahoma, with all beginning on July 15, 1929 (this is most likely when the first Braniff service began at Dallas Love Field). The new airline performed as one of the best in the Universal System with a 99% completion rate reported during the month of July 1929 and the airline also led the other divisions in number of passengers carried. Service was added between Oklahoma City and Amarillo during the summer of 1929. Package express and air freight service was added to the list of Braniff services on September 1, 1929, and included Dallas Love Field. Paul Braniff, travelled to
Washington, DC, to petition for a Chicago-Dallas airmail route. The
United States Postal Service granted Braniff their first airmail route soon after, and the new route was inaugurated in May 1934, which effectively saved the company from failure. In early 1935, Braniff became the first airline to fly from
Chicago to the
U.S.–Mexico border. In August 1935, Paul Braniff left to pursue other opportunities and Charles Edmund Beard was placed in charge of daily operations. In 1954, Beard was appointed president and CEO of Braniff with Fred Jones of Oklahoma City becoming chairman of the board.
Midwestern expansion On December 28, 1934, Braniff purchased Dallas-based Long and Harman Air Lines, that operated passenger and mail routes from Amarillo to Brownsville and Galveston. Braniff Airways merged with the company on December 28, 1934, and began operating Long and Harman's routes on January 1, 1935, which took the airline from Chicago to Brownsville, Texas, and as far west as Amarillo, Texas.
Wartime service During the war, Braniff remanded all of its Douglas DC-2 fleet and a substantial number of its new 21-passenger Douglas DC-3 fleet to the
United States Army Air Forces. The DC-3 had just entered the fleet in December 1939. All of the Airline's DC-2s were given to the military for wartime service and none were accepted back into the fleet at the end of the war. Besides offering its aircraft to the United States military, it also leased its facilities at Dallas Love Field to the military, which became a training site for pilots and mechanics. The August 1946 Braniff Airways system timetable indicates that Braniff was operating scheduled passenger flights at this time on a roundtrip routing of Chicago - Kansas City - Dallas - San Antonio - Laredo - Nuevo Laredo which connected with the Aerovias Braniff service. The new company, owned by Mr. Braniff, operated three 21-passenger Douglas DC-3s that had been allocated to the carrier from the United States War Surplus Administration in February, 1945. Mr. Braniff had applied to the federal
Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) for authority to merge Aerovias Braniff with Braniff Airways, Inc. However, the Mexican government suspended Aerovias' Braniff's operating permits in October 1946, under pressure from
Pan American Airways, Inc., and merger of the two carriers was not approved by the CAB. Braniff was allowed to operate a charter service in Mexico for a brief period in 1947, but that was also discontinued, and service was not commenced again until 1960. The CAB awarded Braniff a 7719
statute-mile route from Dallas to Houston to Havana, Balboa, C.Z., Panama,
Guayaquil,
Lima,
La Paz,
Asunción, and then to Buenos Aires, Argentina, and also a route from Asunción to São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. At that time, the airline changed its trade name to "Braniff International Airways" (the official corporate name remained Braniff Airways, Incorporated) and flights to South America via Cuba and Panama began on June 4, 1948, with a routing of Chicago – Kansas City – Dallas – Houston – Havana – Balboa, C.Z. – Guayaquil – Lima (Lima service did not begin until June 18, 1948). The route was then extended in February 1949 to La Paz and in March 1949, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Douglas DC-4s and
Douglas DC-6s flew to Rio; initially, DC-3s flew Lima to La Paz. Braniff was the first airline authorized by the CAB to operate
jet-assisted take-off aircraft (DC-4s) at La Paz. Braniff inaugurated new service from Lima, Peru, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with a stop at São Paulo, added in October 1950. Service was extended in March 1950 from La Paz to Asunción, Paraguay, and in May 1950 to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Argentine President
Juan Perón and his famed wife
Evita Perón participated in the festivities at the
Palacio Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires. In October 1951, departures from Dallas became daily - three a week to Buenos Aires and four to Rio de Janeiro. Beginning in 1951, flights to South America stopped at Miami, but Braniff did not carry domestic passengers to or from Dallas or Houston to or from Miami.
Deaths of the Braniff brothers On January 10, 1954, Braniff's founder Thomas Elmer Braniff died when a Grumman
flying boat owned by United Gas crash-landed on the shore of Wallace Lake, 15 miles outside of
Shreveport, Louisiana, due to icing. According to information from Captain George A. Stevens: "Mr. Braniff was on a hunting expedition with a group of important citizens of Louisiana. They were returning to Shreveport from a small duck-hunting lake near Lake Charles, Louisiana, in a
Grumman Mallard aircraft with no deicing system. The wings iced up on approach to landing in Shreveport, and the plane lost altitude. One of the wings hit cypress stumps, and the plane crashed against the shore. It caught fire and all 12 lives aboard were lost." Braniff Executive Vice President Charles Edmund Beard became the first non-Braniff family member to assume the role of president of the airline after Tom Braniff's death. Mr. Beard gathered Braniff employees together at the Braniff hangar at Love Field on January 18, 1954, to announce that the airline would move forward and assured the public that the airline would continue. In February 1954, Mrs. Bess Thurman Braniff was appointed a vice president of the company. She was instrumental in calming the fears of Braniff's creditors, which became concerned, especially after the losses incurred in 1953, quickly followed by the loss of Mr. Braniff. Paul R. Braniff died in June 1954 from complications from pneumonia and from throat cancer. Tom Braniff's wife, Bess Thurman Braniff, also died in August 1954, of cancer. Tom's son, Thurman Braniff, was killed in a training plane crash at Oklahoma City in 1937, and his daughter Jeanne Braniff Terrell died in 1948 from complications of childbirth. Jeanne Braniff's child died two days after birth and her husband Alexander Terrell died a year later in 1949.
New equipment and facilities Charles Edmund Beard led Braniff into the jet age. The first jets were four
Boeing 707-227s; a fifth crashed on a test flight when still owned by Boeing. Braniff was the only airline to order the 707-227 because their low density and powerful engines were perfectly suited to Braniff's thin and high routes from the US mainland to South America. In 1971, Braniff sold the jets to
British West Indies Airways, an airline based in the Caribbean.
Boeing 720s were added in the early 1960s. In 1965, Braniff's fleet was about half jet, comprising 707s, 720s, and
British Aircraft Corporation One-Eleven jetliners. The long-range
Boeing 707-320C intercontinental model was then introduced. However, all the 707s, 720s, and One-Elevens were subsequently removed from the fleet in favor of the ideally suited Boeing 727 Trijet. Braniff's last piston-aircraft schedule was operated with a
Convair 340 in September 1967, and the last
Lockheed L-188 Electra turboprop service was flown in April 1969. In February 1957, Braniff moved into a new headquarters located temporarily in the new Exchange Bank Building at Exchange Park, a high-rise office development within sight of Dallas Love Field. The airline was required to move into the temporary building until its new 10-story Braniff Tower also in Exchange Park was ready for move-in on Valentine's Day 1958. Braniff remained in this building until December 1978, when it moved into its spacious new Braniff Place World Headquarters on the west side of DFW Airport. The airline opened a maintenance and operations base with over 433,000 square feet on the east side of Dallas Love Field at 7701 Lemmon Avenue in October 1958. The airline occupied the facility until the late 1980s, with the Braniff, Inc. (Braniff II) holding company, Dalfort, remaining there until 2001.
Boeing Super Sonic Transport (SST) In April 1964, Braniff made deposits on two
Boeing 2707 Supersonic Transports, $100,000 per aircraft. This would give Braniff slots number 38 and 44 when the SST began production. President Beard said the two aircraft would be used on the carrier's US-to-Latin America flights, where the Boeing 707 was performing satisfactorily. Management considered the campaign a success. Braniff reported an 80% increase in business during the life of the campaign in spite of an economic downturn the following year.
"Terminal of the Future" and JetRail Braniff opened the "Terminal of the Future" at Dallas Love Field in late December 1968 and the
Jetrail Car Park people mover monorail system in April 1970. Both operated until January 1974. Jetrail was the world's first fully automated monorail system, taking passengers from remote parking lots at Love Field to the Braniff terminal. Braniff was a leading partner in the planning of
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and contributed many innovations to the airline industry during this time.
Remaking the jet fleet Braniff had been one of the first U.S. operators of the BAC One-Eleven (and the first U.S. airline to order the twin jet), but in 1965, Lawrence ordered 12 new
Boeing 727-100s and cancelled most of the remaining One-Eleven orders. The 727s had been selected before Lawrence's arrival, but no orders had been placed. These planes were the "quick change" (B727-100C) model, with a large freight-loading door on the left side just aft of the flight deck. This allowed Braniff to begin late-night cargo service, while the aircraft carried passengers during the day, in August 1966. This doubled the 727 use rate and allowed Braniff to open the new cargo business, dubbed AirGo. The new 727s could also be outfitted in a mixed cargo/passenger
combi aircraft configuration and Braniff did operate "red eye" overnight services carrying cargo in the forward section with seating for 51 passengers in the rear coach compartment. at
London Gatwick Airport in 1981 In 1970, Braniff accepted delivery of the 100th
Boeing 747 built – a 747-127, N601BN – and began flights from Dallas to
Honolulu, Hawaii, on January 15, 1971. This plane, dubbed "747 Braniff Place" and "the Most Exclusive Address in the Sky", was Braniff's flagship, and it flew an unprecedented 15 hours per day with a 99% dispatch reliability rate over the Transpacific long route. In 1978, N601BN flew the first flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to
London. The Braniff 747 livery of bright orange led to the aircraft being nicknamed "
the Great Pumpkin". The popularity of "the Great Pumpkin" led to extensive publicity, and even the licensing of a scale model by the
Airfix model company. The
Boeing 727 became the backbone of the Braniff fleet. The trijet was the key aircraft in the 1971 Fleet Standardization Plan that called for three aircraft types; the Boeing 727 primarily operated on domestic services, the Boeing 747 for Hawaii, and the Douglas DC-8 for South America. This plan would lower operating costs. When Lawrence took office in May 1965, Braniff operated 13 different aircraft types. Braniff eventually ordered several variants of the 727 including the "quick change" cargo/passenger
combi aircraft variant, the stretched
727-200, and later the 727-200 Advanced. Lawrence also increased utilization of the fleet. In 1969, the
Lockheed L-188 Electras were retired, making Braniff an all-pure-jet airline. By the mid-1970s, Braniff's fleet of 727s showed the efficiencies that a single type of aircraft could produce. The company's maintenance costs on the 727s were lower than the dual-pilot DC-9. In 1975, Braniff had one 747, 11 DC-8s, and 70 727s. The Douglas DC-8] were aging, and speculation arose whether new
Boeing 757s,
Boeing 767s, or
Airbus A300s would replace the long-range
DC-8-62s (which flew Braniff's South American routes including nonstops from Los Angeles and New York City to Bogotá, Colombia and Lima, Peru as well as nonstops from Miami and New York City to Buenos Aires) with
McDonnell Douglas MD-80s possibly being introduced on shorter routes. In 1978, Braniff announced it had chosen the Boeing 757 and 767 to replace the DC-8s over its Latin America Division routes, but the airline never operated the 757, 767, A300, or MD-80.
Alexander Calder wearing Alexander Calder's
Flying Colors of South America design at
Miami Airport in August 1975 In December 1972, American Modern Master
Alexander Calder was commissioned by Braniff to paint an aircraft. Calder was introduced to
Harding Lawrence by veteran advertising executive
George Stanley Gordon, who eventually took over Braniff's advertising account. Calder's contribution was a Douglas DC-8 known simply as "Flying Colors of South America". In 1975, it was showcased at the
Paris Air Show. Its designs reflected the bright colors and simple designs of South America and Latin America and was used mainly on South American flights. Later in 1975, he debuted "Flying Colors of the United States" to commemorate the
Bicentennial of the United States. This time, the aircraft was a
Boeing 727-200. First Lady
Betty Ford dedicated "Flying Colors of the United States" in
Washington, DC, on November 17, 1975. Calder died in November 1976 as he was finalizing a third livery, termed "Flying Colors of Mexico" or "Salute to Mexico". Consequently, this livery was not used on any Braniff aircraft.
Concorde SST Concorde at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport in February 1980: During its time operating with Braniff, the aircraft wore an American
registration only used on domestic flights. In 1978, Braniff Chairman Harding L. Lawrence negotiated a unique
interchange agreement to operate the
Concorde over American soil, making it first time that Concorde was used for domestic—and fully overland—flights. Concorde service began on 12 January 1979 between
Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and
Washington Dulles, with service to
Paris and
London on interchange flights with
Air France and
British Airways, respectively. Flights between Dallas-Fort Worth and Washington Dulles airports were operated by Braniff's cockpit and cabin crews. During the domestic flights, the Braniff's registration numbers were affixed to the fuselage with temporary adhesive vinyl stickers. At Washington Dulles, the cockpit and cabin crews were replaced by ones from Air France and British Airways for the continued flight to Europe, and the temporary Braniff registration stickers were removed. This process was reversed after alighting in Washington Dulles from Europe for the flights to Dallas-Fort Worth. Due to the American noise regulations, Concordes were limited to
Mach 0.95, yet flew at slightly above Mach 1. Concorde service proved to be a loss leader, but it was good publicity for Braniff. In March 1979, fares Washington to Dallas were $128 coach, $154 first class and $169 on Concorde. Braniff later removed the surcharge. The domestic flights often had 15 passengers or fewer, while Braniff's
Boeing 727 flights were nearly full despite being slower than Concorde. (In March 1979, 727s were scheduled 3 hr 15 min Washington to DFW while Concorde was 2 hr 50 min.) Braniff ended Concorde flights on June 1, 1980. In spite of the service's less-than-stellar performance, the cost to Braniff was negligible thanks mainly to the agreements that Braniff negotiated with both British Airways and Air France. Braniff was fully reimbursed for any losses incurred as a result of the interchange agreement. All three carriers entered into the agreement for the purpose of promotion of Concorde in the United States and around the world. This key premise was highly successful. British Airways became concerned at the unprofitable stance that Concorde had taken and as a result of the Braniff interchange, critical studies were begun to determine how to make Concorde profitable. The results of these studies found that Concorde must be marketed as an ultra-luxury travel experience. Implementation of this program turned the Concorde program into a profitable, as well as prestigious, venture. Braniff issued select promotional materials and postcards that presented a Concorde with orange cheat line that began at the tip of nose and continued to the end of tail, white BI logo (designed by Alexander Girard as part of "End of the Plain Plane" campaign in 1965) against orange vertical stabilizer, and 1978 Braniff Ultra Font for "Braniff" below the cheat line. The font was part of Braniff's updated 1978 Ultra livery that removed "INTERNATIONAL" from the name only on Boeing 727 and McDonnell Douglas DC-8-62 aircraft. Braniff's Boeing 747 aircraft continued to carry the "Braniff International" titles in the 1969 Harper and George International font. However, unlike Singapore Airline's Concorde, none of the Braniff Interchange Concordes was impressed with Braniff livery.
Deregulation and global expansion Until 1980, Braniff was one of the fastest-growing and most-profitable airlines in the United States, but deregulation of the airline industry was introduced in October 1978, and Braniff – as well as many of the United States' major air carriers, especially the smaller national carriers such as Braniff – were caught in a peculiar predicament as a result of the unprecedented change in how airline business was conducted. Lawrence accurately believed that the answer to deregulation was to expand Braniff's route system dramatically or face an immediate erosion of Braniff's highly profitable routes as a result of unbridled competition from especially the large trunk carriers along with the new low-cost startup carriers. Braniff was surrounded on all sides at Dallas/Ft. Worth, Kansas City, Chicago, Denver, Atlanta, and Miami, by the larger carriers, which were poised to immediately begin invading Braniff's long-held territory. These large carriers had in abundance what Braniff termed "City Power", which was the ability to use their massive assets to dominate a particular destination. Braniff, therefore in response, enlarged its domestic network by 50% on December 15, 1978, adding 16 new cities and 32 new routes, which Braniff stated was the "largest single-day increase by any airline in history". The expansion was successful operationally and financially. Although the expansion of 1978 was successful (by late 1979, Braniff's market share moved significantly for the first time since the 1940s from an average of 4.5 to an unprecedented 6.5% market share, all directly related to the expansion program), it did not stop losses from beginning in late 1979 as a result of unprecedented rises in fuel costs and credit card interest rates of 20% and higher, coupled with general economic unrest and an unprecedented drop in load factor of 5 points in the fourth quarter due to the significant use of American Airlines and United Airlines discount fare coupons during the holiday travel season. As a result, Braniff reported its first operating loss since the recession of 1970. The operating loss was $39 million in 1979, then $120M in 1980 and $107M in 1981. The losses in 1980 were directly attributed to Braniff's slip in market share due to the erosion of its bread-and-butter routes and corresponding feed to the larger carriers such as
American Airlines,
Delta Air Lines, and
United Airlines. In 1979, international hubs were created in
Boston and
Los Angeles to handle expected increases in travel outside North America, while international service was increased from Dallas/Fort Worth. From Boston and Dallas/Fort Worth, new transatlantic Boeing 747 service to Europe was operated to
Amsterdam,
Brussels,
Frankfurt, and
Paris. From Los Angeles, new nonstop trans-Pacific Boeing 747 service was flown to
Guam and
Seoul with direct, no change-of-plane 747 flights being operated to
Hong Kong and
Singapore. Load factors on these routes were considerable, but the at-times competition Braniff faced from Asian carriers pushed Braniff's breakeven point even higher, making the routes unsuccessful once coupled with exorbitant fuel costs across the globe and the loss of significant feed from its domestic system due to severe competition from the new startup carriers and the larger mega airlines. This international expansion was also planned to have included flights to
Tokyo, as well as an "oil run" between Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and
Bahrain; however, these routes never commenced, although service to Bahrain was approved by the US government in 1979. Besides standard-model 747s, long-range
747SPs were acquired, as well, for these new international flights, with the 747 also being operated to South America. Also in 1979, Braniff began operating nonstop flights between
Honolulu and Guam and Los Angeles, as well as one-stop service between Honolulu and Hong Kong via Guam in addition to its long-running nonstop service between Honolulu and Dallas/Fort Worth. Braniff's decreasing load factors combined with record-breaking fuel cost escalations, unfair and unbridled competition, unprecedented interest rates, and a national recession (the worst since the Great Depression of 1929), produced massive financial shortfalls, especially in 1980, which was caused by the severe recession that was affecting travel globally. Harding Lawrence elected to retire in December 1980, effective January 7, 1981, after nearly 16 years (1965–1981) of service to the company. Dubbed the last airline maverick, Lawrence oversaw the carrier's rise from $100 million a year in revenue to more than $1.4 billion a year in revenue at his retirement. By 1981, all 747 service to Asia and Europe with the exception of nonstop flights between Dallas/Fort Worth and London had been discontinued, although Braniff continued to operate 747s on international service to Bogotá, Buenos Aires, and Santiago in South America, as well as on domestic flights between Dallas/Fort Worth and Honolulu.
John J. Casey becomes president On January 7, 1981, the board of directors elected John J. Casey as president, chief executive officer, and chairman of Braniff Airways, Inc. and Braniff International Corporation as a replacement to the outgoing and retiring Harding Lawrence. Former Braniff president Russel Thayer was elected as vice chairman of the board, William Huskins as executive vice president, Neal J. Robinson as executive vice president of marketing, and Edson "Ted" Beckwith as executive vice president of finance. Mr. Thayer had been extremely vocal about Braniff's critical position if deregulation were to take effect.
Cessation of air carrier operations in 1982 On May 11, 1982, Howard Putnam left a courtroom at the Federal Courthouse in Brooklyn, New York City, after failing to gain a court injunction to stop a threatened pilot strike (Braniff's pilot union maintains that they were not threatening a strike at this time). However, Putnam was successful in obtaining an extension of time from Braniff's principal creditors until October 1982. The next day, on May 12, Braniff Airways ceased air operations, ending 54 years of air service. Braniff flights at DFW that morning were suddenly grounded, and passengers were forced to disembark, being told that Braniff was no longer flying. A thunderstorm provided an excuse to cancel many afternoon flights that day, although Braniff's legendary Boeing 747 Flight 501 to Honolulu departed as scheduled, with the crew later refusing to divert the flight to
Los Angeles International Airport. The flight returned to DFW the following morning, the last scheduled Braniff flight. In the following days, Braniff jets at DFW sat idle on the apron by Terminal 2W. The Douglas DC-8-62 fleet was flown from Miami to Dallas Love Field and stored until new owners could be found. Though all of Braniff's scheduled and nonscheduled airline operations ceased, all of the company's subsidiaries continued in operation, some for many years. Braniff's maintenance activities at Love Field continued to serve its non-Braniff customers and oversaw the maintenance of Braniff's grounded fleet at DFW and Love Field. Braniff also continued to operate its Council Rooms, which were VIP passenger lounges, at certain airports, including DFW, which were contracted for use by other airlines that operated in Braniff's terminal facilities. Braniff Realty, Inc., continued to operate the airline's airport facilities, including Braniff's Terminal of the Future at Love Field, until it was sold to American Airlines in 1996. Braniff Realty also owned several of Braniff's Boeing 727-200 Trijet airliners, which were later sold as a result of the reorganization of the company in 1983. Braniff Educations Systems, Inc., met for classes as scheduled on the morning of May 13, 1982, and during the reorganization was sold to
Frontier Airlines, Inc., and operated as Braniff Education Systems, Inc., d/b/a Frontier Services, Inc. In 1985, the company was sold to a private individual in Texas, who operated the entity as Braniff Education Systems, Inc., d/b/a IATA or International Aviation and Travel Academy, which provided initial pilot training, airline simulator training, maintenance technician training, and airline-ticket and travel-agent training. IATA survived until 2007. Braniff International Hotels, Inc., also continued in operation, which primarily operated the world famous
Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas. At one time, Braniff Hotels operated properties throughout the United States and Latin America. Braniff had saved the historic Driskill from demolition in 1973 and purchased the entity outright in February 1975. The assets of Braniff Hotels were transferred to the new Dalfort Corporation, which was the reorganized company created from Braniff Airways, Incorporated, and Braniff International Corporation, which was financed by the Hyatt Corporation. Eventually, the Driskill was sold to the Lincoln Hotel Corporation in 1985. With an approved bankruptcy reorganization agreement with Hyatt Corporation, a new Braniff, Inc., would be created from the assets of Braniff Airways, Inc. and Braniff International Corporation and would begin operations on March 1, 1984. Howard Putnam stepped down as president of the company with the announcement of the agreement, and longtime Braniff International Senior Vice President of Flight Operations Dale R. States became president of the company until the reorganization into Dalfort Corporation was completed on December 15, 1983. The original airline company continues today as a retail, licensing and branding, and hotelier firm. Braniff is one of only two heritage airlines that continues to control its own intellectual property and other assets, with Pan Am being the other. Braniff Place World Headquarters, which the carrier occupied until December 15, 1983, on the west side of DFW, eventually became
GTE Place, and then
Verizon Place.
Successor organizations Former Braniff employees founded Minnesota-based
Sun Country Airlines in 1983. It operated a fleet of Boeing 727-200s and
McDonnell Douglas DC-10s until 2001, when it filed for bankruptcy. Sun Country then reorganized and currently flies a modern fleet of
Boeing 737-800s.
Fort Worth Airlines was founded in 1984 by Thomas B. King, a former Braniff vice president; two-thirds of the airline's executives came from Braniff, and even its office furniture was Braniff surplus bought at the airline's bankruptcy liquidation sale. Fort Worth Airlines used 56-seat
NAMC YS-11 aircraft and flew to destinations in Oklahoma and Texas, but was unable to operate profitably, ceasing flights and filing for bankruptcy in 1985. Two airlines were formed from the assets of Braniff: •
Braniff, Inc, was founded in 1983 by the
Hyatt Corporation under the umbrella corporation Dalfort. The airline adopted a
low-fare business model in 1984, only to collapse in late 1989, a victim of intense fare competition and mounting debts amid a general industry downturn. •
Braniff International Airlines, Inc., was founded in 1991 by financier
Jeffrey Chodorow, whose company BNAir, Inc. purchased the assets of the moribund Braniff, Inc. Plagued by intense competition and by turmoil and malfeasance in its own upper management, the reborn airline dissolved in 1992. ==Braniff today==