Braniff International Airways

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Braniff International Airways (IATA: BN, ICAO: BNF, and Callsign: Braniff) 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.

Founding and first decades

Braniff Airlines logo, ca. 1931-34

The Braniff brothers restarted another airline in 1930 as Braniff Airways, Inc. During the 1930s, Braniff Airways aggressively 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 its first airmail route, in the wake of the 1934 Air Mail Scandal. In 1935, Braniff became the first airline to fly from Chicago, Illinois, to the U.S.-Mexico border. Paul Braniff left the airline in 1935 to pursue other interests, and Tom Braniff retained control of the carrier and hired Charles "Chuck" Beard to run the airline's day-to-day operations. Beard would become President and CEO of Braniff in 1954.

Over the years, Braniff acquired a number of other airlines, as well as new Douglas DC-2 and Douglas DC-3 aircraft to fuel its expansion. Most of its operational network remained focused on the midwestern north-south portion of the United States. During WWII, the airline leased a portion of its fleet to the United States military, and 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 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. It was the only airline to use this variation.

\"The End of the Plain Plane\"

In 1964, Troy Post — then the chairman of Greatamerica Corporation, an insurance holding company based in Dallas, Texas — engineered the purchase of Braniff as part of an expansion of holdings which also included National Car Rental. Both Braniff and National were chosen after Greatamerica CFO C. Edward Acker identified them as particularly poorly managed companies; as part of the acquisition, Acker became Executive Vice President and CFO of Braniff as well. In 1965, Post hired his brother-in-law Harding L. Lawrence, the Executive Vice President of Continential Airlines, to become the new president of Braniff International. Harding viewed Braniff as a "backwater" airline—despite the facts that the airline had routes from North Dakota to Argentina, and was already the 11th-largest airline in the world—and sought to re-image Braniff into his "vision". Over the next 15 years, Lawrence's "vision" of aggressive expansion into new markets and ideas unorthodox for the airline industry would lead Braniff to a path of record industry performance, expanding earnings tenfold (despite load factors which hovered around 50%) and making the airline the sixth-largest airline in the world. Unfortunately, the same ideas which would catapult Braniff to the front of the American consciousness would eventually doom it to bankruptcy.

To overhaul the image of Braniff, Lawrence hired self-styled "style guru" Mary Wells of Jack Tinker Associates. A paramour of Lawrence from his days at Continential, Wells joined Lawrence both professionally and privately, embarking on a very public "jet set" romance. After the two married in 1966 (and Mary allegedly used Braniff money to start her own ad agency), she was fired due to a "conflict of interest" at the order of both Braniff's Board and the Civil Aeronautics Board.

First on the Lawrence/Wells agenda was to overhaul Braniff's public image—including the red, white, and blue livery—as they perceived that image as "staid". Wells, through Jack Tinker, called on two internationally famous trendsetters—noted New Mexico native and architect Alexander Girard and celebrated Italian fashion designer Emilio Pucci. With this new creative talent, Braniff began the "End of the Plain Plane" campaign.

At Girard's recommendation, the current livery was dropped in favor of a wide palette of bright colors. 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 original seven colors in 1968). Many of the color schemes were applied to aircraft interiors, gate lounges, ticket offices, and even the corporate headquarters. Art to complement the color schemes was flown in from Mexico, Latin America, and South America.

Pucci used a series of nautical themes in overhauling the crew's uniforms. For the stewardesses, Pucci used "space age" themes, including plastic bubbles (resembling Captain Video helmets) which the stewardesses could wear between the terminal and the plane to prevent any hairstyles from being disturbed. (Jetways would make these unnecessary, however.) The stewardess uniforms were also designed with interchangeable parts, which could be removed and added as needed.

In 1968, Braniff expanded an advertising campaign that showed the likenesses of Andy Warhol, Sonny Liston, or a Playboy Bunny, and other socialites of the time, all embellishing their experiences flying Braniff. It became one of the most celebrated marketing efforts Madison Avenue had ever produced, blending effectively a message of style and arrogance; one advertising slogan was "if you've got it—flaunt it!" Though management considered the campaign a success, Braniff's core customers were outraged by the grandiose behavior and perceived "bragging", causing many corporate accounts to leave Braniff.

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, Braniff President 1954-1965) 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 1969, the turboprop planes were all retired, making Braniff an "all jet" airline. 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.

The BRANwich

In-flight cuisine was a particular concern of Harding Lawrence's management team. Starting in 1965, an international board of chefs was assigned to "outdo" all the other airlines in food service. 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.

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. Later 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. (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. American fashion and couture designer Halston was then brought on to bring a more American look back to Braniff. His all-leather looks—dubbed the "Ultra" look—were applied to uniforms and the fleet, including Braniff's new Boeing 727-200s. (Sadly, one of the jets converted to the "Ultra" look was Calder's "Flying Colors", destroying the unique paint scheme.) His uniforms and simplistic design were praised by critics and passengers.

In 1971, Braniff accepted delivery of the 100th Boeing 747 built—a 747-127 model—and began "jumbo jet" service to London and Hawaii. This plane, dubbed "747 Braniff Place" and "The Most Exclusive Address In The Sky", became the beloved flagship of the airline. Additional 747s, including the 747SP, would be used for service to Asia and Europe. 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.

Disastrous deregulation

Up to 1978, Braniff remained one of the fastest-growing and most-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. Lawrence believed that the answer to deregulation was to expand Braniff's route system dramatically; consequently, the domestic system became 50% larger, with flights to 16 new cities. Additional international hubs were created in Boston and Los Angeles to handle expected increases in travel outside North America. (This would have included flights to Tokyo, as well as an "oil run" between Dallas, Houston, and Dubai; these routes never entered service.) Unfortunately, little of the expected new business materialized; 747 service from the new Boston hub proceeded particularly poorly, with the huge planes flying nearly empty. As a consequence of the new equipment and the new hubs, Braniff's debt expanded tremendously; more debt was generated in shifting Braniff's main base of flight operations from Love Field in Dallas to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, complete with a sprawling new headquarters just outside the new airport. These debts combined with Braniff's sub-par load factors—which were especially intolerable on the expensive-to-run 747s—to produce massive financial shortfalls. The rising debts in addition to allegations of accounting fraud (aka "cooking the books") led to the ouster of Harding Lawrence in 1980.

Concorde miscalculation

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 applied to both sides of a Concorde; there are reports of a Concorde painted in Air France livery on one side and Braniff livery on the other, however.

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.

First reorganization attempt

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.

Second reorganization attempt

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)

• Minnesota-based Sun Country Airlines was founded in 1982 by former Braniff employees. It flew a fleet of Boeing 727-200s and DC-10s until 2001. It reorganized, and currently flies a modern fleet of Boeing 737-800 series aircraft.

• 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, "" (also known as 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-famous "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 "mod" styles.

External links

• [BraniffPages.com] - a website about the entire history of Braniff by Brooke Watts
• [BraniffInternational.com] - The airline's culture by Carlos Yudica
• [thebranifffamily.org] - Braniff employee organization run by Carl and Carrie Shea
• [biseonline.com] - "Braniff International Silver Eagles" Retired Pilots Official Site
• [BraniffInternational.org] - The airline's history by Ian Nicholson
• [Braniff Expo] - Japanese Braniff Exhibition site

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