LTU International Airways, one of Germany’s leading airlines, announced the addition of New York as a new route beginning next May. LTU will operate daily, except Wednesdays, from John F. Kennedy International Airport’s Terminal 4 with nonstop service to Düsseldorf, Germany, LTU’s hub. LTU also offers connections to Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart and Frankfurt in addition to other European destinations. LTU is celebrating its 50th year of operation in 2005 and is adding New York in an effort to expand its North American route structure. In addition to New York, LTU also services Ft. Myers, Orlando and Miami in Florida, Los Angeles, California and Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary in Canada. “New York is an important market and we hope to provide excellent service at affordable rates”, said Kristina Harmon, LTU’s North America sales manager. LTU has been synonymous with safety, innovation, customer service and friendliness for almost five decades. “We intend to aggressively increase LTU’s corporate market share with the addition of New York,” stated Kristina Harmon, “by offering competitive business class rates.” “JFK Terminal 4 welcomes LTU to New York,” said Alain Maca, president of JFK IAT LLC, which operates Terminal 4. “And we’re confident that Terminal 4 is a great match for LTU.” LTU will serve the route with its fleet of Airbus A330-200 that seats 305 in economy and 18 in First Comfort, LTU’s business class service. LTU was founded in 1955 and serves nearly 6 million passengers each year.

great value to our company. Michael has been in the airline industry for almost 30 years, with 15 of these spent at JFK in various managerial roles. The most recent position he held was Station Manager for Virgin Atlantic Airways and prior to that, Manager Airport Services JFK, IAD & MCO for Saudi Arabian Airlines”. He has also provided invaluable contributions to the Airline Community as a former president of KAAMCO and a board member for the JFK Chamber of Commerce.

AirTrain JFK and Parking Lot C Garage at Newark Liberty International Airport Recognized for Excellence in 2004 National Concrete Transit Award AirTrain JFK at John F. Kennedy International Airport and the Parking Lot C garage at Newark Liberty International Airport were named winners of the Portland Cement Association’s Third Annual Concrete in Transit Awards. The awards will be presented on Sunday, October 24, during the American Concrete Institute’s Fall Convention in San Francisco. The awards recognize excellence in the design and construction of public transportation facilities. Entries were judged on creativity, aesthetics, economics and functionality. Port Authority Chief Operating Officer Ernesto L. Butcher said, “These awards are a testament to the Port Authority’s commitment to excellence. Our airports are a gateway for nearly 90 million passengers a year, and we expect passenger growth to average more than 3 percent annually over the next decade. It is imperative that we continue to make investments in initiatives that provide travelers with the finest transportation facilities possible.” The 8.1-mile AirTrain JFK light-rail system connects JFK to the New York City subway system and the Long Island Rail Road commuter line. Built, managed and maintained by Bombardier Transportation under contract to the Port Authority, Air-Train JFK enables tens of thousands of air travelers and airport employees to travel to, from, and within the airport quickly and conveniently every day.

Restoration of the historic Marine Air Terminal (MAT) at LaGuardia Airport is nearing completion. The scaffolding around this historic structure is being removed to reveal a restored brick face, rebuilt parapet walls, new windows and three new roofs. Airport historians, employees and patrons alike will enjoy the newly restored art deco terra cotta friezes of flying fish on the parapet walls around the building, symbolic of the seaplanes that used the terminal in the 1930s.
As LaGuardia Celebrates its 65th anniversary of operation on December 2, the MAT played a pivotal role in the international operations of commercial flight in the
region. The first internationally scheduled airline service to New York City operated out of this terminal.

point last year. She was also optimistic about prospects for the future. New construction is moving at a rapid pace as Queens, once he Borough of light industry and small retail companies transforms itself to a center of large commercial
and concerns and shopping centers. A CUNY facility will be opening in Far Rockaway while continued responsible expansion is happening at JFK. Borough President Marshall urged local businesses to support the Chamber and challenged the members to carry-on programs the spur economic activity in the region. After the presentation, she swore in the newly elected Board of the Chamber and challenged them to continue the great work of their predecessors.

and the Far East and my preferred carrier was Pan Am. On one occasion, one of my trips became a last minute business crisis and the destination was Ecuador, so my secretary booked my on a Braniff flight. And that was my introduction to this Dallas based airline with the brightly colored aircraft. Instead of the staid, business like whites, blues, grays and silvers of Pan Am and American, I was flying on a aviation version of an Easter egg; but the service was excellent, the schedules adhered to and my bags arrived with me to Quito in good order. I found Braniff to be a dependable carrier and flew them on several other occasions to South America. Jon Proctor who wrote a history of Braniff along with several other defunct airlines asks an interesting question about this historical airline; “How would you describe Braniff?, A colorful carrier? An airline with an affinity for designing effective marketing techniques? The airline that refused to die?” When all is said and done, Braniff is gone and an important part of American aviation history left with it. Braniff was an early aviation pioneering company and got it’s start as several other start-ups by getting a US Mail contract. From these humble beginnings, Braniff grew to

City, St. Louis, and Wichita Falls, Texas. Braniff was close to insolvency when the United States Post Office awarded it an airmail route between Dallas and Chicago in 1934. At the time airmail routes were the lifeblood of many small airlines, since they guaranteed a source of revenue in an unpredictable business climate. The same year Braniff moved company operations and maintenance facilities to Love Field, Dallas, from Oklahoma City. In 1935 the company bought Long and Harmon Air Service and gave it mail contracts connecting Dallas-Fort Worth and the Panhandle with Mexico through connections in Brownsville. As the first airline to offer service between Chicago and the Mexican border, Braniff adopted the advertising slogan, "From the Great Lakes to the Gulf."

Field in 1958. Revenue passenger miles increased from 550 million in 1953 to 1.5 billion in 1964; during the same time the company's one-cent-per-share earnings increased to $2.03. In August 1964 the Dallas-based Greatamerica Corporation, an insurance company, acquired 57.5 percent of Braniff stock. Troy Post, Greatamerica's Texasborn chairman, had decided to purchase Braniff after his senior vice president in charge of finance, C. Edward Acker, concluded a study of poorly managed companies and listed Braniff among the worst. To lead Braniff, Post recruited Harding L. Lawrence, former executive vice president of Continental Airlines. In 1965 Lawrence replaced Beard as president and chief executive officer of the airline and reincorporated Braniff Airways in Nevada in 1966. From that time until 1990, despite subsequent changes, Post and his administration dominated the firm. Lawrence brought a flamboyant style to the airline and oversaw Braniff's greatest period of growth. Declaring that "sameness is boring," he announced an "end of the plain plane" by painting company aircraft in seven bright solid colors, hiring an interior decorator to redesign cabins and terminals, and having worldrenowned Italian fashion designer Emilio Pucci design revealing uniforms for company flight attendants. In November 1967 Post sold Greatamerica and a controlling interest of Braniff stock to Ling-Temco-Vought, Incorporated (see ltv corporation). Friction arose when Braniff executives blamed LTV for bleeding the airline of cash during the late 1960s to finance other acquisitions. In 1971, on the orders of the United States Department of Justice, LTV was forced to divest itself of Braniff to purchase a steel company. Braniff International Corporation was formed in 1972 as a holding company with Braniff Airways. By 1969 the company had become an exclusively jet airline using the advertising slogan, "If You've Got It, Flaunt It!" After his "Jellybean Airline" acquired South American competitor Panagra Airways (Pan American-Grace Airways) in 1967, Lawrence commissioned artist Alexander Calder to paint a DC-8, "to focus international attention on South America as a vacation destination." Calder also painted a Braniff Boeing 727 red, white, and blue in 1976 to commemorate the United States Bicentennial. By 1978 the airline was flying to destinations in the mainland United States, Hawaii, South America, and London, Paris, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam. When you talk about the early 70’s, you talk about a company flying high. Phil Jensen, who is now Manager of Sales and Services for Evergreen Airlines was a Supervisor of Customer Services for Braniff during this period. When I interviewed him for the article, the one major thing he recalled about Braniff was the great “esprit de corps” of management and staff and the thoroughness and professionalism of the employees. One of Phil Jensen’s most vivid memories is hearing about the former President of Braniff, John Casey’s death. Jensen was driving from Long Island and
decided to stop by the wake to pay his respects. While at the wake, he was introduced to Al Casey, John Casey’s brother. Al Casey, was a competitor of his brother as President of American Airlines. They spoke briefly and Casey was touched by Phil Jensen’s visit and invited him back to the house. It was a typical kind of way that airlines in those older days, took care of each other and even associated with the “enemy” in a friendly way. It is worth noting that Jensen’s supervisor’s original Halston uniform which is now at the Smithsonian Aviation museum. Things began changing in the late 70’s and while the economics was still good, the fundamental structures were changing. The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 prompted Lawrence to embark on what was then the greatest expansion in airline history; acting on the conviction that survival in a deregulated environment was dependent on size, he added thirty-one destinations to Braniff service over the
next two years. Long-term debt increased over $305 million from 1978 to the end of 1979, exacerbated by higher fuel prices and interest rates and a countrywide recession that led to decreased air travel in mid-1979. In the third quarter of 1979, generally the industry's most profitable quarter, Braniff lost $9.8 million, its first loss since early 1975. By 1980 interest payments rose to more than $92 million, and between 1978 and 1980 Braniff's net worth fell from roughly $250 million to just ver
$66 million. In 1979 Braniff withdrew from ten unprofitable routes, citing high fuel prices and low traffic levels. To raise cash the company began selling its more modern planes and relying on older, less fuelefficient planes. Layoffs in 1979-80
reduced employees from a high of 15,000 to 11,500, and in 1980 the company withdrew from its unprofitable routes in the Far East. That year Braniff lost $131 mil-lion, an industry record at the time. In December 1980 Lawrence resigned, and in January 1981 John J. Casey, executive vice president since 1968, was named chairman, president, and CEO. Casey, a former Seaboard World Airlines and American Airlines executive, refocused the company on its shorter routes and obtained a 10 percent pay cut agreement from union employees, but he was unable to stop the red ink and was shortly forced to lay off another 1,000 employees and discontinue all routes to Europe except the London route. In late 1981 Casey hired Howard D. Putnam, former president and chief executive officer of Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, to assume similar duties at Braniff. Putnam and Philip Guthrie, the executive vice president of finance, reduced the number of fares from 582 to fifteen and removed first-class seats from domestic flights. By the end of 1981 Braniff had a negative net worth estimated at $90 million. Unable to meet its payroll, Braniff International Corporation ceased operations in May 1982, recalled its sixtytwo aircraft, fired all but 225 of its 9,000 employees, and filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors. Two attempts to resurrect the airline failed. In 1983

percent had worked for the old Braniff and agreed to return to work for lower wages. The low-cost airline, headquartered in Dallas, operated routes out of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to twenty-one cities. In 1988 Philadelphia investors Jeffrey W. Chodorow and Arthur G. Cohen bought the company, but increased price competition forced the airline to declare bankruptcy again in 1989 and ground its jets in November of the same year. Chodorow and Cohen started flights again under the Braniff name in 1991, using the assets of Emerald Airlines, a Houston charter airline they purchased in 1990. Under new chief executive officer Gregory B. Dix, the company attempted to carve a niche for itself in the leisure travel market by offering $79 oneway fares from Dallas-Fort Worth to Newark and Los Angeles. In 1992 the company ceased operations, again citing increased fare wars. By 1993 all that remained of the former airline was Dalfort Aviation, a training enterprise associated with Love Field in Dallas.