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National Post
24-06-2025
- Business
- National Post
Pan Am nostalgia takes flight under new ownership
A small gaggle of former Pan American World Airways flight attendants stood by a window in Terminal 7 at John F. Kennedy International Airport, craning their necks and holding up phones. There were a few audible gasps and a soft cry of 'Oh gosh, there it is' as the plane came into view. Several of the women teared up as the jet finally slid past the window, its fin bearing the unmistakable cobalt-blue meatball of the Pan Am logo. Article content Article content The former flight attendants — and several dozen fellow passengers — were at JFK to board the plane, a chartered Boeing 757 that's being billed as a 'Pan Am journey by private air.' Over 12 days the plane will travel from New York to Bermuda and then on to Lisbon, Marseille, London, and Shannon, Ireland, before returning to New York City. The plane itself, which has capacity for 50 passengers, features fully reclinable lie-back seats, personal devices from which to stream entertainment options, as well as an open bar and chef-prepared meals served by attendants dressed in full Pan Am regalia. The trip cost US$59,950 per person for double occupancy, $5,600 more for single occupancy. Article content Article content Article content The flight to Bermuda isn't quite the first to wear the iconic Pan Am badge since the pioneering airline folded in 1991; a previous owner dabbled in launching a few routes in 2006. But it's the maiden voyage under Pan Am's new owners: Chief Executive Officer Craig Carter, who's led luxury travel-planning companies, and four other investors with backgrounds in hospitality and event marketing. They bought the Pan American World Airways trademark last year with the intention of reviving one of the most storied brands in airline history. Article content What Carter and his fellow investors had purchased in February 2024 was essentially a licensing operation. There are Pan Am watches by Breitling and Timex; you can buy branded T-shirts and sweatshirts; and the name had been on a gin and vodka distillery, among other things. Most of those efforts are very much ongoing, but almost immediately the new ownership began planning a high-end luxury tour. 'We knew this would be a good way to get a plane back in the air,' Carter says. 'That was one of our main objectives.' Article content The trip itself was put together by Bartelings, a company that specializes in tours by private aircraft, and Criterion Travel, a tour operator that plans high-end trips for alumni organizations, museums and similar groups. Its six stops were part of Pan Am's first two trans-Atlantic routes, which the airline began flying commercially in 1939. The group is set to stay at hotels including the Fairmont Hamilton Princess & Beach Club in Bermuda, the Four Seasons in Lisbon and the Savoy Hotel in London. The last stop, in Shannon, is built around a visit to the Foynes Flying Boat & Maritime Museum, which features a full-size replica of a Boeing 314 'flying boat,' the famous Pan Am Yankee Clipper.
Vancouver Sun
24-06-2025
- Business
- Vancouver Sun
Pan Am nostalgia takes flight under new ownership
A small gaggle of former Pan American World Airways flight attendants stood by a window in Terminal 7 at John F. Kennedy International Airport, craning their necks and holding up phones. There were a few audible gasps and a soft cry of 'Oh gosh, there it is' as the plane came into view. Several of the women teared up as the jet finally slid past the window, its fin bearing the unmistakable cobalt-blue meatball of the Pan Am logo. The former flight attendants — and several dozen fellow passengers — were at JFK to board the plane, a chartered Boeing 757 that's being billed as a 'Pan Am journey by private air.' Over 12 days the plane will travel from New York to Bermuda and then on to Lisbon, Marseille, London, and Shannon, Ireland, before returning to New York City. The plane itself, which has capacity for 50 passengers, features fully reclinable lie-back seats, personal devices from which to stream entertainment options, as well as an open bar and chef-prepared meals served by attendants dressed in full Pan Am regalia. The trip cost US$59,950 per person for double occupancy, $5,600 more for single occupancy. Plan your next getaway with Travel Time, featuring travel deals, destinations and gear. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Travel Time will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. The flight to Bermuda isn't quite the first to wear the iconic Pan Am badge since the pioneering airline folded in 1991; a previous owner dabbled in launching a few routes in 2006. But it's the maiden voyage under Pan Am's new owners: Chief Executive Officer Craig Carter, who's led luxury travel-planning companies, and four other investors with backgrounds in hospitality and event marketing. They bought the Pan American World Airways trademark last year with the intention of reviving one of the most storied brands in airline history. What Carter and his fellow investors had purchased in February 2024 was essentially a licensing operation. There are Pan Am watches by Breitling and Timex; you can buy branded T-shirts and sweatshirts; and the name had been on a gin and vodka distillery, among other things. Most of those efforts are very much ongoing, but almost immediately the new ownership began planning a high-end luxury tour. 'We knew this would be a good way to get a plane back in the air,' Carter says. 'That was one of our main objectives.' The trip itself was put together by Bartelings, a company that specializes in tours by private aircraft, and Criterion Travel, a tour operator that plans high-end trips for alumni organizations, museums and similar groups. Its six stops were part of Pan Am's first two trans-Atlantic routes, which the airline began flying commercially in 1939. The group is set to stay at hotels including the Fairmont Hamilton Princess & Beach Club in Bermuda, the Four Seasons in Lisbon and the Savoy Hotel in London. The last stop, in Shannon, is built around a visit to the Foynes Flying Boat & Maritime Museum, which features a full-size replica of a Boeing 314 'flying boat,' the famous Pan Am Yankee Clipper. The tour does its level best to evoke the 'golden age' of air travel. Flight attendants, borrowed from Icelandair (hiring and training crews for the tour isn't yet in the cards) wore replica Pan Am uniforms, complete with hats and white gloves. When the small crew stopped to pose for pictures with pilots in dapper uniforms outside the terminal, they drew a crowd almost immediately. Their neat updos and spiffy uniforms have the instant effect of conjuring up a time when travel was exciting, a bit glamorous, full of possibility. Flyers might feel as though they're on a movie set. Around the elegant group, travelers in sweatpants, plastic slip-on sandals and scruffy ponytails shuffled toward the security line. The customized 757 holds about 30 spacious rows of first-class seats. The aisle is wide, but sadly there's no seatside chateaubriand service — a hallmark of first-class Pan Am travel, when flight attendants would famously carve meat on the spot. Plenty of champagne, however, will be on offer. None of the legs of this trip will be longer than seven hours, but should a passenger want to fall asleep, they could completely recline their seat. (The restroom is, well, just an airplane restroom with elevated finishes. For now it's more than enough. Carter says they had no trouble filling the plane for this trip. A significant portion of the guests who bought tickets have a connection to Pan Am that goes back decades; several were flight attendants or the children of pilots. Debbi Fuller of Langdon, New Hampshire, was a flight attendant from 1980 to 1989. She'd shown her husband the brochure for the trip last winter, laughing at the five-figure price tag. He surprised her by telling her to book it, she says: 'He said, 'I'm 83. I can't take it with me. I know how much Pan Am meant to you. And I lost that much in the stock market last week anyway.'' Fuller's husband stayed home ('his travelling days are over'), but she's used to solo trips, and her excitement at this one was obvious. She'd brought her uniform with her (it needed only a few minor adjustments to fit) and planned to wear it in Bermuda. The Pan Am alumni network is a remarkably active one. A foundation raises money to support a museum, which along with a podcast and YouTube channel is a repository for stories and memorabilia chronicling the airline's history, from its first flight (a mail boat from Key West to Havana in 1927) to becoming a juggernaut that dominated air travel, pioneering routes from the US to places all over the world. Despite not having worked together for at least 30 years, many crew members maintain close ties, says Wendy Knecht, a former flight attendant who was invited to join the first leg of the trip as part of her work with the Pan Am Museum Foundation. 'Of all the jobs I've ever had, we feel like we're family.' (Even today, Knecht says, she frequently channels her Pan Am identity: 'If I have people over for dinner, I just pretend I'm doing the first-class galley. We used to throw parties there every day.') But Carter, Pan Am's new CEO, is betting there's an appetite for Pan Am nostalgia that goes well beyond the ranks of former crew members. And there's evidence not too far away from where the plane started this new journey: The TWA Hotel, in the Eero Saarinen-designed former terminal at JFK, is a jet-age time warp with restaurants, a shop and a rooftop bar and swimming pool. Across Europe and Asia, ultraluxe train trips, which hearken back to an even earlier age of high-style travel, are selling out with price tags in the tens of thousands of dollars for a few days aboard. Pan Am has also joined the ranks of a select few travel operators, including the Four Seasons and Abercrombie & Kent, which are betting that luxury jet travel is appealing to a demographic that will pay as much as $198,000 to fly with just a few dozen fellow travellers to a series of destinations where bespoke itineraries have been planned to the last detail. Another Pan Am private jet journey is already in the works. Next April passengers will be able to trace the trans-Pacific route on a 21-day trip that stops in Tokyo; Siem Reap, Cambodia; Singapore; Darwin and Sydney, Australia; Auckland; and Nadi, Fiji. That one will cost $94,495 per person for double occupancy, $9,500 more for a single. But if that price tag is out of reach, Carter and his partners don't plan to leave you out in the cold. A Pan Am hotel is planned for a shopping centre near Los Angeles, and soon you'll be able to book an evening on the city's relaunched Pan Am Experience , which Carter calls 'dinner theatre' aboard a grounded airplane where the theme is 1970s Pan Am glamour. If all you want is one of the famous tote bags, Carter says that unfortunately those won't be for sale to the general public. If you find yourself in South Korea, however, there are still 14 stores there that sell nothing but Pan Am merchandise. The true dream for Pan Am is to be an airline again, Carter says. It's begun the costly and painstaking process of figuring out how to relaunch — and finance — regularly scheduled service. And while it's early days, the company has already secured a call sign from the Federal Aviation Administration: Clipper.
Euronews
20-06-2025
- Business
- Euronews
Pan Am plane lands in Lisbon on luxury flight for aviation nostalgics
If you saw a Pan Am aeroplane in the skies over Lisbon this week, you weren't seeing a ghost. A special commemorative Pan Am flight passed over the Portuguese capital on Thursday. The plane, which was flying the Tracing the Transatlantic route, landed yesterday evening at Lisbon's Humberto Delgado Airport, where it will remain until Saturday. This flight attempts to recreate the company's historic routes. It left New York on Tuesday, then passed through Bermuda before arriving in Lisbon. Also on the itinerary are the cities of Marseille in France, London in the United Kingdom and Foynes in Ireland. Its return to New York is scheduled for 28 June. In the Portuguese capital, passengers stayed at the Ritz Hotel and experienced an evening of fado music. This is a dream trip for those nostalgic for the golden days of transatlantic aviation. The 50 or so passengers are travelling in business class, eating chef-cooked meals and drinking at an open bar, just like in the old days. All, of course, served by stewardesses in the company's iconic blue uniform. The price of the tickets also predates the era of low-cost aviation, around €52,000 per person. Even so, those responsible for organising the nostalgia trip say they weren't difficult to sell. Pan American World Airways used to be the largest US airline operating international flights, but went bankrupt in 1991. Then, last year, businessman Craig Carter and other investors bought the brand. For now, they're reviving it by selling merchandise and luxury travel experiences like this one. For this first trip, they used an Icelandair aeroplane, which was suitably adapted, and also the company's crew. Air India is facing disruptions following last week's fatal crash as additional safety inspections on its Dreamliner fleet have led to flight delays, cancellations and growing passenger anxiety. India's aviation safety regulator ordered deeper checks on Boeing 787 aircraft operated by the airline soon after its London-bound flight crashed during take-off in Ahmedabad city on 12 June, killing at least 270 people, including 241 passengers and crew. The precautionary inspections, as well as the closure of airspace in some Middle Eastern countries, have strained Air India operations across domestic and international routes. Since the crash, Air India has cancelled operations for 83 wide-body flights, including 66 Dreamliners, according to data shared by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, India's aviation safety regulator. In a statement late Wednesday, Air India said wide-body aircraft service would remain curtailed by 15 per cent until mid-July because of the unfolding conflict in the Middle East and the additional inspections. The airline said it would inform affected passengers and try to accommodate them with alternate flights. The 'curtailments are a painful measure to take, but are necessary,' the airline said. The airline is performing an even greater number of checks than required, which has had a cascading impact on operations, a company executive familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity as he wasn't authorised to speak to the media. The airline said in its statement that it has decided to also inspect all of its Boeing 777 aeroplanes in its fleet, even though that model wasn't involved in the crash. The cuts in the flight schedule will allow Air India to keep more planes in reserve to deal with any unplanned disruptions. The company on Tuesday announced the cancellation of multiple flights, including one from Ahmedabad to London Gatwick. Another flight from Delhi to Paris was cancelled when a mandatory pre-flight check raised an issue, the airline said in a statement. The issue was not identified. In a statement Tuesday, the aviation directorate said surveillance conducted on Air India's Dreamliner fleet so far has found no 'major safety concerns.' The aircraft and their associated maintenance systems were found to be compliant with existing safety standards, the directorate said, adding that of the 33 planes, 24 have completed the inspections, while four were undergoing long-term maintenance. The rest were expected to finish the safety checks soon. The regulator advised the airline to 'strictly adhere to regulations," and asked it to strengthen internal coordination across engineering, operations and ground handling units and ensure adequate availability of spares to mitigate flight delays. Experts from India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau are probing the crash with assistance from the UK, the US and officials from Boeing. Some aviation experts see the crash as a temporary setback for Air India as it transforms from a financially troubled state-owned carrier to a privately owned company with ambitions for broad expansion. 'If you ask me whether the accident will derail the ambitious growth plans, no way. There can be no looking back,' said Jitender Bhargava, a former Air India executive director. The company has already placed huge orders for new aircraft. Its present challenge is to boost the morale of employees and passengers through confidence-building measures, Bhargava said. 'The faster you make people forget this one-off accident, the better it is,' Bhargava said. Indian conglomerate Tata Sons took over Air India in 2022, returning the debt-saddled national carrier to private ownership after decades of government control. The $2.4 billion (€2 billion) deal was seen as the government's effort to sell off loss-making, state-run businesses. It was also in some ways a homecoming for Air India, which was launched by the Tata family in 1932. Since the takeover, Air India has ordered hundreds of new planes worth over $70 billion (€61 billion), redesigned its branding and livery and absorbed smaller airlines Tata held stakes in. The company has additionally committed millions of dollars to digital overhauls of aircraft and refurbishing the interiors of more than five dozen legacy planes.
USA Today
17-06-2025
- Business
- USA Today
'Tracing the transatlantic' charter trip honors the avgeek legacy of Pan Am
'Tracing the transatlantic' charter trip honors the avgeek legacy of Pan Am The storied Pan American World Airways – better known as Pan Am – is taking flight once again this summer as a commemorative trip departs from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Tuesday. A special "tracing the transatlantic" package vacation using a chartered Boeing 757 in Pan Am colors will visit sites that are significant to the brand and closely follow its original "flying boat" transatlantic route through June 28. CEO of Pan American World Airways and owner of Pan Am Brands Craig Carter said in a statement: Since 1927, Pan Am has left an indelible mark on the world. From humble beginnings as the first commercial carrier for the U.S. Air Mail, Pan Am's founder Juan T. Trippe went on to create a vast aviation empire across the globe, literally bringing the world closer together one flight at a time. ... This journey, tracing both the original Pan Am Southern Transatlantic Route between New York and Marseilles and the Northern Transatlantic route between London and New York, has been painstakingly designed to honor the unmatched legacy of Pan Am in the most respectful way. The tour group passengers each paid $59,950 per person for a seat on the all-business jet and hotel accommodations throughout the trip. Travelers on the tour will stop in Bermuda, Lisbon, Marseille, London and Shannon before returning to New York. The original Pan Am southerly transatlantic route, which departed from Port Washington, New York, stopped in the Azores, Lisbon and Marseille. Among the sites passengers will get to see is a full-scale replica of a Pan Am Boeing 314 Flying Boat in Foynes, Ireland. Zach Wichter is a travel reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for USA TODAY. He is based in New York and you can reach him at zwichter@
CTV News
01-05-2025
- Climate
- CTV News
U.K. could hit 30 degrees Celsius at earliest recorded point in a year
LONDON — The U.K. is set for its hottest day of the year so far on Thursday, and temperatures could hit 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) at the earliest recorded point in the calendar, forecasters said. Following one of the warmest and driest Aprils on record, forecasters said the mercury will likely peak in London, before cooler weather starts to drift in from the north on Friday — bad timing for those looking to bask in the sunshine over the coming three-day weekend. Monday is a public holiday in the U.K. Michael Silverstone, deputy chief meteorologist at the Met Office, the U.K.'s national weather service, said it's possible temperatures on Thursday could hit 30C in southern England. If so, he said it 'will be the earliest date in May that the U.K. has seen 30 degrees since our records began in 1860.' On Wednesday, the Met Office said temperatures reached 26.7 degrees in Wisley, just south of London, making it the warmest day of the year so far. Authorities urged people to be cautious if choosing to go swimming as the water temperature in lakes and the sea remain low given the time of the year. The London Fire Brigade has also urged caution around open-water swimming after a 32% increase in water-related incidents last month compared with the same period last year. 'Even when the sun is shining, water temperatures can be dangerously cold,' said Craig Carter, its assistant commissioner for prevention and protection. 'Cold water shock can affect anyone, no matter how fit or experienced they are.' Police said Thursday that the body of a 16-year-old boy was found in a lake in Nottingham. 'While work is now under way to understand how the boy came into difficulty, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight this case as a reminder of the devastating consequences of entering open water, regardless of whether people do so deliberately or inadvertently,' said Chief Inspector David Mather of Nottinghamshire Police.
