Pan Am Officially Loses Its Right to Fly

You’re probably thinking to yourself, “Hmm, isn’t this headline more than 15 years too late?” Sure, if you’re talking about the original Pan Am. But the latest version, #4, if you will, has finally, officially, been put out of its misery. If you ever want to learn how NOT to run an airline, take a look at the recent filing revoking Boston-Maine Airways’ certificate (pdf) to fly. The DOT couldn’t have been more scathing. Here are some excellent snippets.

“The Department was later informed that the financial information submitted by BMAC in support of its request had been falsified, and that the air carrier did not actually possess the financial resources necessary to meet the Department’s financial fitness requirements for the requested authority.”

“The severity of BMAC’s financial situation has inhibited the air carrier’s ability to maintain an adequate number of necessary personnel, has likely had a negative impact on consumer refunds, and has caused the air carrier to significantly scale back its operations.”

“Given that the Department issued three public orders summarizing our financial fitness requirements and the air carrier’s alleged financial position, which was based on the falsified material, we tentatively concluded that the President and other key personnel either did not familiarize themselves with the orders, which, in and of itself, raises questions concerning their managerial competence, or that they knew that the orders were inaccurate and did not inform the Department, which directly reflects on their compliance disposition.”

See, I told you it was some good reading. So what does Boston-Maine have to do with Pan Am? Guilford Transportation bought the Pan Am name after the second version of Pan Am went belly up during the 1990s. They started Pan Am III and had Boston-Maine operate as its commuter airline. Guilford eventually shut down Pan Am and transferred some of its tired 727s to Boston-Maine, an airline which just happened to be non-union with lower costs. The airline operated as Pan Am Clipper Connection to small, out of the way airports, and its planes looked just like Pan Am planes.

So now, Pan Am is gone from the skies once again, and this time it was hardly a dignified end. Let’s hope they let the name rest in peace now. This is yet another example of someone who thinks they can resurrect a glorious name and reputation only to fail to live up to it. (Hint: It’s almost impossible to make that happen.)