Portsmouth, N.H. – The Pan Am brand is making a new push at a comeback, with a new TV show from ABC and a revived fashion line. The airline Pan Am died years ago after two successive efforts to revive the airline. Today, it lives on companies as varied as Pan Am Railways and a flight acadmeny.

The successor Pan Am Systems, which owns a variety of transportation and other corporate assets, is now developing the logo as a fashion brand as well as licensing it out to ABC for a television program.

Recently, the company unveiled a new effort at licensing a fashion line that was exhibited at the “Project” tradeshow in Las Vegas. Not only did it include bags, which were developed a few years ago, but fashion items such as the belt seen here. Said Director of Marketing and Corporate Development Stacy Beck:

“One of things we noticed along the way was that while people only wanted to pay $49 for an airline ticket, they didn’t mind paying $150 for a bag,” Beck said.

In recent months, the interest in the brand has grown with the news published in Variety of an ABC television show based on the rights. Sony will produce the show, which is based on the airline during the 1960s.

In addition, a grassroots effort is developing to raise awareness about the future of the old Pan Am Worldport at JFK Airport. The landmark structure, which hosted hundreds of thousands of important visitors over its 50 year history, is threatened with demolition by its successor airline Delta and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

NEW YORK – In the wake of discussion about the possible demolition of the Pan Am Worldport (now Delta’s Terminal 3), there is one key element that has already been removed. The Zodiac Screen sculptures (or sculpture), now in storage, that used to dominate the front of the building. The screen was once the largest sculpture in the world.

Through the years, stars and blue sky were part of the branding of Pan Am. The zodiac was a major part of the Art Deco Pan American terminal in Miami at Dinner Key. The ceiling there had panels depicting the signs of the zodiac symbols on it. The building still exists as Miami City Hall.

The sculptor, Milton Hebald, at age 92 lives in Los Angeles and still works in terra cotta. He created the 24 x 220 sculpture in 1961.

Of all Hebald’s works, the Zodiac Screen is the most famous. “So many people identify with it,” says Hebald’s trustee, Karen Lupton. ” They remember it. It was such an image for people.”

The ultimate would be to have the zodiac reinstalled in any renovated or new Delta terminal. While they were created for Pan Am, and were taken down by Delta, the company officials who did it are long gone. Plus, the images don’t have anything to do with the logo of Pan Am, so they would fit. Lupton says it is his dream to have the sculptures resurrected.

The Zodiac Screen is Hebald’s legacy. Known for his various sculptures throughout the world, Hebald’s dream is to find the Zodiac Screen a new home. Created in bronze, there are 12 unique pieces, Aries, Aquarius, Cancer, Capricorn, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Pisces, Sagittarius, Scorpio, Taurus and Virgo. Each piece is a representation of Hebald’s vision, and his unique contemporary baroque style.

The 91-year-old Hebald states, “The creation of this sculpture took the greater part of my life. I felt that it truly related to all people. For some it spoke to astrology, others history, but even more so it spoke of beauty, love, and aesthetic gratification. I have never been more proud of one of my creations. I can happily go to my resting place knowing that
people can once again enjoy the Zodiac”.

Interest in Hebald is growing again; he now even has a website and had a new show last year. Documentary artist Linda Carfagno is working on a story of his life, which includes an interview in the Port Authority hanger where the Zodiac sits.

Many of his older pieces are in private collections and some have been sold off.

Lupton says that she did speak over a year ago to the Port Authority, which has the sculptures “still safe” in storage.

“Milton’s time will come again,” says Lupton.

Hebald is represented by the Harmon-Meek Gallery in Naples, Florida. See www.harmon-meek.com.

NEW YORK – We read in Crain’s New York that the old Pan Am Worldport at JFK might be demolished soon by Delta. The building is one of the great landmarks of aviation, though it has been so abused over the years that few would actually believe it if they toured it.

It’s where the Beatles arrived; it was even in the news today as the place where that Cuban hijacker left in 1968; I think then they called it skyjacking. In 1970, millionaire dilettante singer James Brody asked Richard Nixon to come there and talk about world peace. Dozens of great scenes have been enacted in the lobby, perhaps none more frightening than the 1978 return of the remaining, elderly cultists from Jonestown, Guyana. And then there was the arrest of Axl Rose in 1992 at the WorldPort after that St. Louis concert gone wrong.

The terminals, believe it or not, were top tourist attractions in their Catch Me If You Can era. Pan Am’s Idlewild terminal was such a snazzy destination that during the Kennedy Administration, Jackie and Caroline left for Italy from the terminal on a commercial Pan Am jet. Likely Caroline got to play in Pan Am’s toy-filled nursery, staffed by bi-lingual attendants.

The WorldPort was built in 1961, and designed by Ives, Turano & Gardner Associated Architects and Walter Prokosch of Tippets-Abbett-McCarthy-Stratton. Delta owns the terminal next door, Terminal 2, which was designed in 1962 for Braniff, Northeast and Northwest. Pan Am also had tenants in the building, including JAT, the Yugoslavian airline.

The WorldPort (actually UPS now uses the term for its terminal elsewhere) is of the same vintage as JetBlue’s TWA Flight Center nearby, and that building has been preserved, though no one has quite figured out what to do with it. Certainly, it is not as interesting a building as the TWA Flight Center, but the Eero Saarinen building is one of the world’s greatest architectural landmarks.

Part of what was so fascinating about JFK was that each of the airline brands had their own branded terminals. TWA was coolest. The most sublime was the Sundrome of National Airlines. This was an I.M. Pei masterpiece of glass that allowed visitors to step into the Sunshine State when they headed into their terminal.

Questions about the building and its future:

1. How bad? Critics call the building “insufferable” but are its problems beyond fixing? Technology keeps changing, and part of the challenge of the building is that it was built for 707s, but by the time it got just 10 years old it had to adapt to Pan Am’s 747s. The other challenge for buildings at airports is that because airport space is limited, you can’t leave too many old things around.
2. Is it eligible to be a National Landmark? As far as we know, that eligibility work has not been done. Even if it is a national landmark, that does not mean it cannot be taken down. What it does mean is that its merits have been weighed.
3. Are there preservation tax credits if part is saved? If the building is eligible for the National Register, and pieces of it can be utilized in a manner sympathetic to the old, then there are tax credits possibly available. Certainly, much of the building has been destroyed, and a series of renovations have not done well by it. Part of the idea of a building is whether the historic fabric has been destroyed. But if good bits are still there, there might be a case. These questions are not easy, though; someone needs to really look at the structure.
4. Is there Section 106 review? If a building is eligible for the National Register, and it is threatened with demolition with projects that involve federal dollars, the government goes through a process called Section 106 Review. It basically means that there should be an official process as to whether the building should be demolished. Section 106 review does not always mean that a building cannot be demolished. What it means that there must be a process if it is to come down, more than a decision by the Port Authority and Delta saying that they want it down. If it must come down, it needs to be documented properly, and any pieces that can be saved, must be saved. In addition, there is remediation; that might mean that a replacement building could utilize pieces of the building, such as the Hebald zodiac scupltures that were removed in the 1990s.
5. Can the Milton Hebald Zodiac be re-mounted? Sometime after Pan Am went bankrupt the first time and Delta took over its European routes, the wonderful Milton Hebald sculptures of the zodiac came down. They are now reportedly in a Port Authority of New York warehouse.

Tomorrow: We will examine the history of the Milton Hebald zodiac and Pan Am’s fetish for star designs on its terminals.

• Proctor & Gamble just released its revived collection of Rochas, under the leadership of Marco Zanini. Proctor & Gamble shut down Rochas in 2006, and brought it back. The Wall Street Journal noted last week that its “nutty wide heels” and such targeted the exuberant woman who wanted to be a bit kooky.
• Last week, it appeared that the new Northrop Grumman CEO, Wes Bush, would have to decide on what to do about the tanker program that it is competing with Boeing to develop. As we all know, Grumman is using Airbus as its partner, but well-connected Boeing, initially the loser in the bids, was revived after much politics. We would submit, Mr. Bush, that the program’s failure to win a bid is partially a branding problem. Namely, it is thought of as a European bid. Why not revive the Grumman aviation name and develop planes under that brand, from your operation in Melbourne, Florida?
•  It’s good news for former GM dealers that were to be cut. The reality? Dealers make most of their money from repairs, not car sales, so why the government decided to force GM to close dealers made no sense. It was, as they say, crazy talk. This is one case where congressional meddling paid off. Back in the day, it was O.K. for dealers to have one brand, and sell a limited amount of cars. Then dealerships went to this crazy idea of volume. What other consumer good is helped by limiting the number of retailers who sell it? It made no sense.
• We hear it is terminal for the former Pan American World Airways WorldPort at John F. Kennedy International Airport. It is now Terminal 3; apparently it will come down, according to various and assorted blog reports. We hope that the Port Authority will follow historic preservation guidelines for the structure, including a Section 106 review of the assets, before it actually does the deed.

Thoughts?

• North Central http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQFaVy0Kl2Y
• National http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbWWF7nBV84
• Southern http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tgmHGqtDv
• TWA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RnhwK8Id3Y
• Southwest http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-g0yOFUlOQ
• UAL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPWTcu0yPGs
• Delta http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBm1YEO4Q_Q
• Eastern http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf9sJSvzpqE
• Western http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfmRKHtzfFs
• PSA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOtv1lQ3Sgw
• Braniff http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3_aNtQFsLk
• Frontier http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyZYi7WZz-U
• American http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd4gAHmRJWo
• America West http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s0GQSeQdCk
• Pan Am http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDPAwMXKro8
• Allegheny http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MG47_G_JmHk
• Ozark http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es-l7Zf0Xyc

In preservation, there are basically three approaches, to restore the building exactly as it was, renovate the building to something like what it was, or to go through a process called adaptive reuse, where you take existing elements of something old to create something new.

Often, adaptive reuse is a better idea than straight out restoration, and is more faithful to the original. For instance, internationalists who were inspired by the idea of internationalism did not try to resuscitate the League of Nations. Instead they tried again with a new name and twist, the United Nations.

For businesses, what assets do you have that can be adaptively reused? How can you stay with the times, yet not waste great resources of the past? Below are a few examples of business and organizational ideas that are adaptive reuse. The idea is to find assets, then look at market needs, and recombine them in new ways to add value.

Older, large companies can do this easily, as they have unproductive assets. Smaller companies would have a harder time with it, because there are fewer assets lying around. Here are some examples:

1. SNL: Saturday Night Live is a perfect example of adaptive reuse. In 1976, NBC was an unsexy network with little to lose. It did, however, have some great assets. One asset was its empty sound stages, including 8-H, where Toscanni performed for NBC radio. Another asset was its leadership after 11:30 p.m with The Tonight Show. Another asset was its network overhead of publicists, cameramen and talent, including booth announcer Don Pardo. So when it needed to try some new ideas, Lorne Michaels hired a cast and they created Saturday Night Live. If NBC had chosen to try to recreate Your Show of Shows, it probably would have been a disaster, as an exact recreation would have always been tied to what the original was. SNL, however, had its own spirit. In a sense, it became the spirit of Your Show of Shows, with a current twist. (Read about 8H in Tom Wolzien’s address.)
2. BA London City Flight: British Airways had a problem. No more Concorde. So what did they do? They found a small Airbus and decided to run an all-business flight from London’s City Airport to JFK. The flight (number 1) has a number of unique elements, including the fact that passengers clear customs in Shannon, Ireland. That means that passengers arrive in New York as a local flight. Brilliant. Whether this idea pays off is yet to be seen, but it illustrates the same idea. See the Financial Times review of the flight, which includes an interview with Chris Stubbs, the British Airways product manager, talking about the flight.
3. Pan Am Shuttle: What is now the Delta Shuttle was created in 1987 at a time when Pan American World Airways was struggling. It had an old fleet, and a poor domestic route system. Persistent recession and fuel issues hindered its success, and while passengers still relied on its international service, it did not have a powerful domestic passenger base. So what did it do? It took underutilized assets like a bunch of old 727s, the old Marine Air Terminal  at LaGuardia (which had been home to Pan Am Clippers), and created the Pan Am Shuttle. By 1989, it was making $20 million a year for Pan Am.
4. Metromedia and Fox Television: Few remember it, but when Fox television network launched, it was created with the pieces of the old Metromedia network, mostly channel 5 stations in big markets. Metromedia itself was a re-casting of the failed DuMont television network. Most could not understand how it would succeed, but it did. Notice, Murdoch did not call it DuMont, but he kept the idea of the fourth network alive, and recast it and added value.
5. K-Car and the Minivan. In 1981, Chrysler had a big problem. It was not only broke, but its cars were crap. I can vouch for this, as I grew up with a Plymouth Volare. (Once all the recalls were fixed, it was actually a good car). That meant that there were some good pieces to work with. So they took a Torqueflite transmission and other off the shelf elements, added them to a new platform, and the K-Car was born. Later, the K Car platform was modified to create the Plymouth Voyager and Dodge Caravan.
6. Magnum, P.I. In 1980, CBS had a problem. When Hawaii Five-O was canceled after 12 seasons, they had a whole crew in Hawaii. The slavish adherent to the brand would have made a new version of the show, calling it something like Book Em and having the same cast members. (CBS has actually talked about this idea recently. Lame.) What CBS did was far more brilliant, and kept the idea of the Hawaii private eye alive. They simply used the crew, and created a new show, Magnum, P.I. Magnum ran for another eight years.
7. Kmart: The chain went through a messy period. Some things that were memorable were its low-income roots (i.e. lay-a-way) and its Blue Light specials. A few years ago, the “blue light” came back, in the guise of an online retailer. It flopped. But Kmart didnt give up, and Mr. Bluelight was reborn as a mascot. They then brought back lay-a-way.

What assets do you have laying around that might be valuable? Old brand names? Real estate? Old products? Archives? Yes, you can sell them off at the dump. And that might be the right idea. But a better idea might be to see how you can combine old physical or intellectual property assets with old or temporary employees. That’s when it really gets interesting.

MIAMI – There could not have been a more perfect Florida ambassador, and airline, than National Airlines.

When the “Sunshine Airline” merged into Pan American World Airways in 1980, a uniquely Florida institution was lost. Arguably, it was the only airline that promoted a state as its marketing position and achieved national prominence with that approach. (New York Air sort of succeeded for a time; Air Florida was the other, and we know what happened there.)

National, founded in 1934 by George T. Baker, did everything for Florida. It was the first domestic jet carrier and the first all-jet carrier. It pioneered transatlantic service from the South to Europe. After being taken over by appliance heir Bud Maytag, it created a nationwide stir with the airline’s 1971 “Fly Me” campaign, which highlighted stewardesses telling of reasons to “Fly Me” by flying National. Feminists protested, but the campaign worked.

The Florida sun theme (and Sun King logo) was everywhere, and not just painted on DC-10 tails.

In New York’s JFK, National built the Sundrome, an extravantly elegant glass-walled terminal designed by I.M. Pei. (It sits next to the TWA Flight Center (now of JetBlue) and the Pan Am Worldport (now of Delta). No matter what the weather in New York, this Florida “embassy” was warm and sunny, filled with gorgeous flight attendants in Oleg Cassini uniforms taking guests to the sun. National changed the marketing of Florida from a seasonal destination to an all-year market. It also helped change the image of Florida as a place not only of hotels and swamp-brokers, but a state where technological leadership and business acumen were celebrated.

Every bit of the airline was close to perfection. The airline even owned its planes outright, which made it a too-plump takeover target. It is a cautionary tale, and proof that in capitalism, something that is run very well can still disappear for reasons that have little to do with economics.

A successor airline also had the moniker National Airlines, but it had no direct connection with the original. For a time in the 1990s, the Sun King logo appeared on the planes of Key Airlines, which was a small Southeast airline.

The plane is apparently called Liv; it was grounded at Stockholm Arlanda Airport back in November 2002 and it has undergone a complete renovation.

“It’s just fantastic and unbelievably exciting to finally be able to show something so unique and special for the rest of the world,” said Gisela Olsson, Site Manager at the Jumbo Hostel, in an online press release.

In August the Jumbo (Liv) was towed and relocated to its new permanent location at the entrance to Stockholm Arlanda Airpor.

“Stockholm Arlanda Airport will now boast a new alternative option for overnight accommodation, but also a fierce attraction. This should bring an increased interest in Stockholm and the region,” said Oscar Diös, CEO and mastermind of the Jumbo Hostel. “The interest is huge, with tour operators and tourist organizations worldwide.”

See more about the hotel at http://www.jumbohostel.com

We write lots about Pan Am at BrandlandUSA; it’s a bit of an obsession. Read other stories about Pan Am including the following:

• October 2, 2008 — Historic Route To JFK, By U.S. Helicopter, for $45
• August 16, 2008 — Pan Am Lives On And On

HAVANA - We all have nostalgia for pre-Castro Cuba, and this is the year to remember what was, especially as Jan 1 is the 50th anniversary of when Fidel Castro declared victory over Fulgencio Batista‘s government.

We can look back on some of the great Cuban brands associated with Havana. To get there, we would have had to take a steamship from the Spanish Line, Saguenay Shipping Ltd, West Indian Fruit & Steamship Co., Inc. or the S.S. City of Havana, which ferried cars between Havana and Stock Island, Florida.

If we were flying, we could have taken:

• Q Airways from West Palm to Isle of Pines on a DC-4.
• Guest Airlines, flying DC-3s and Viscounts
• Cubana Airlines, with their Viscounts and Britannias
• Pan American World Airways, from Miami, flying DC-7Bs, DC-6Bs and DC-7cs

Rum and Cigar Brands

• Bacardi rum
• Matusalem (also known as Matusa) rum
• Top cigar brands included Monte Christo (#4 was best), H. Upmann, Romeo y Julieta, Hoyo de Monterrey, Larranaga and Partagas

Hotel Brand Names

• Nacional: The grand hotel of Havana
• The Hilton, (Habana Libre), at the revolution a new luxury hotel. This Hilton was known for its Sugar Bar on the roof. Fidel was known to hang out there. Commie dictators always love the fancy new Western places, don’t they!

Restaurant Brands

• Floridita: The most famous restaurant and home of the frozen daiquiri, reputedly the best in the world, and the mulata, made with different dark rums. Pompano baked in a bag was a specialty too.
• Trader Vic’s: Yes, there was a Trader Vic’s in the Hilton.
• La Roca: This was a business lunch spot favored by Americans.
• Tally-Ho: French food in English decor.
• Prilla’s: Cuban society spot
• La Rue 19: Another French spot
• Mes Amis: Frenchy but with American customers, with host Tony Gorrodi, who was the pianist
• El Carmelo: Open air terrace dining
• El Palacio De Cristal: Western food
• La Zaragozana: Established in 1830, known for rabbit and Galacian stew
• La Bodeguita Del Medio: A bohemian restaurant, with walls covered in celeb photos
• Churley’s Louisiana: American gathering spot with hot fudge sundaes.
• Sloppy Joe’s: The famous bar/spot at Zulueta and Animas.
• The Yank: An American owned steak house on the road near Arroyo Arenas.

Nightclubs

• Tropicana: The government took it over; it was an old Spanish mansion with two shows each night
• Hotel nightclubs included the Casino Parisien, Caribe Room, Copa Room and Casino.
• Bambu Club: aCuban nightclub.
• Mambo: Known for “unescorted” women who would ”retire with you to a back room.”
• Shanghai Theater: a burlesque closed by the Castro regime.

Retail Brand Bames

• El Encanto, at Galiano and San Rafael Streets, a giant department store
• Fin dee Siglo, another chic department store
• Woolworth’s: Yes, there was a Woolworth’s.

Today, we write about Pan Am One luggage brand. It has been spied lately in LaGuardia; BrandlandUSA’s intrepid brand sleuth Tim Murphy found it for us.

Pan Am’s brand lives on with a flight academy and a railroad. The company lives on in the form of Inter-Continental Hotels (it has now lost the hyphen, methinks), which was a subsidiary formed by Juan Trippe to house flight crews.

While we are at it, let’s think of other brand extensions:

• Pan Am Clipper Clubs restaurants and lounges (airport restaurants and lounges)
• Pan Am WorldPass. A co-branded frequent fFlyer Visa card where mileage accrues for international travel ONLY.
• Delta WorldPort. A renamed version of Delta’s JFK Terminal, that used to be the Pan Am WorldPort. Now, you can at least take a helicopter to JFK from Manhattan.
• Pan Am Terminals: An airport operating company.

Related posts include:

• Pan Am lives on and on
• Delta’s Historic Worldport, Terminal 3

But there is another way to experience the old stuff. By U.S. Helicopter. Back in the day, New York Airways ran Sikorsky helicopters from the top of the Pan Am (now Met Life) building to the Pan Am Worldport. It proved a bit (understatement) dangerous landing those big Sikorskys atop the building, but the people who actually got to land there still recall the excitement of leaving for a trip by stepping onto the roof of the tower.

Eventually, New York Airways ended, as did Pan Am. But for us folks who long for a smidge of excitement in air travel, there is still helicopter service to JFK from Manhattan. Lucky for us it still goes to the old Pan Am Worldport, which is now Delta’s nifty (but busy) Terminal 3.

The company providing the service is called US Helicopter, and the company operates 27 daily flights, Monday through Friday, connecting the Downtown Manhattan Heliport near Wall Street and the East 34th Street Heliport in Midtown Manhattan with Delta’s Terminal 3, Gate 11 at JFK.

You would do well to book a flight on Delta to New York in October. Delta is offering their 8 minute helicopter ride with US Helicopter for $45 one way (it is usually $159) through Oct 31 to passengers flying into JFK. The company also runs its own specials on its website. Security screening is in Manhattan, so you don’t have to do it again at JFK.

Futurist Dream

The company New York Airways, led by Robert L. Cummings, opened in December 1965, the vision of Pan Am founder Juan Trippe, what Meredith L. Clausen in her book “The Pan Am Building” called “Futurist” dreams. It was launched with Vertol 107 helicopters. There was a Pan Am check in desk on the first floor of the Pan Am building. Passengers would then board an elevator, then take an escalator to the roof of the building. Critics called the service a p.r. “gimmick” that was merely about promoting Pan Am. The service ended after a May 16, 1977 rotor blade snap that killed five, four while boarding. While nothing was wrong with helicopters per se, they needed to land in less gust prone places that weren’t right above Grand Central Station.

Book via delta.com, through Delta at (800) 221-1212. A one-way flight on US Helicopter is complimentary when purchasing eligible First class, Business Class or unrestricted Economy tickets.

Before the airline went into bankruptcy, its assets were spun off. United Airlines took Pan Am’s Pacific routes and MetLife the Pan Am building. Other pieces that disappeared long before included Inter-Continental Hotels. At bankruptcy, Delta kept Pan Am’s Atlantic routes and Worldport at John F. Kennedy Airport, and the Pan Am Shuttle, which was a separate entity. The name was the only thing left. It was valued at $1,325,000 at bankruptcy auction. The bidders was Eclipse Holdings of Rockville, Md., which planned to license the brand out. An economic case could be made that Pan Am should have sold off the airline, leased the brand to a startup, and kept the rest of the assets; if that had happened, what a company it would have been!

• Through a chain of events, the airline started up again, eventually merging with Miami-based Carnival airlines to form a new Pan Am, Pan Am Two. That airline went bankrupt too.
• Guilford, a new Hampshire based rail company, purchased the assets of the airline. Pan Am flew again; a sort of Pan Am Three. That Pan Am flew between Hartford and Boston and Florida, and a few very small places.

The Leo DiCaprio movie Catch Me if You Can shows the Pan Am that is so valuable – a glamorous company. People copy and try to do and be the sorts of people they see in the movies. It would then quite easily follow that there is still very much a market for Pan Am, and TWA for that matter.

Today, these are the pieces of Pan Am that are still around.

• The Pan Am Worldport. Now called Delta’s Terminal 3, it has been refurbished by Delta.
• Inter-Continental Hotels. Very many of their original Pan American created hotels are still operating as Inter-Continental. Reserve any of them by logging into www.ichotelsgroup.com.
• Falcon Jet Corporation. This was a joint venture of Pan Am and Dassault, now fully owned again by Dassault. Who says you have to actually be a plane manufacturing company to launch a new jet?
• Pan Am International Flight Academy. Now one of the leading flight training schools. It says on the website that it was “ Pan Am International Flight Academy’s Training Facility, located in Miami, Florida, was designed by Pan American Airways to be the world’s premier airline cabin safety training center. With more airline cabin training equipment than any other facility in the world, including door trainers, cabin mock-ups, fire fighting facilities, aircraft slides and a full size pool, our customers receive training that is second to none.” This is the perfect solution to keeping an old brand around. If the airline goes defunct, pieces of its training operations can still exist with a new name that incorporates elements of the old. Historic note: it was a dutiful instructor at Pan Am who alerted the FBI to one of the Sept. 11 hijackers. No one listened carefully enough to this moment of courage.
• Pan Am Railways. It is the new name for the Guilford Rail companies of New England.

Other parts of Pan Am:

• There is one part of Pan Am that we just love. It is the happy jingle that the airline used in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It is called We Fly the World. A post about it from BrandlandUSA.

Other links on Pan American:

• There is the Everything Pan Am virtual museum.
• There is the Pan Am One luggage line. This company sells luggage, cards and other items that harken back to the golden age of flying.

When British Airways announced that it was buying two new long-range airplanes on Thursday, Sept. 27, 2007, it was good news for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner program and the Airbus A380 double decker. BA will buy $8.2 billion in aircraft, including 12 Airbus 380s and 24 Boeing 787s. But, as the Financial Times reported, it was a bit of a blow to Boeing, who had hoped to sell the airline a revamped version of the 747, the Boeing 747-8.

Smidgen of good news; Lufthansa has some 747-8s on order, and the company is still promoting the future of the plane for passengers and freight. It recently ran full-page ads in the Financial Times promoting the fact that it is already welcome at airports, a dig at the new Airbus.

There is even a 747-8 company jet, detailed in James Wallace’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer blog. So there is no danger right now of 747s going away, but to keep something around, you have to plan early in case there is a day 10 years down the road when these gorgeous things are only used by charter and cargo airlines. This is not a new idea; The Washington Post wrote the story in 2005.

We hope (and know) Boeing is committed to the B-747 program, because, frankly, they are cool. Readers of this blog should know that we here at BrandlandUSA are sappy nostalgia buffs who often, and sometimes irrationally, value things that are interesting, even though these things don’t always make perfect financial sense.

There is a method to this; so much of what we buy in our world is a commodity, and the only thing that makes a commodity not a commodity is how it is operated and positioned. So irrational is rational. Another reason why we are interested is that while most would feel Boeing is the “brand,” Boeing is merely a company brand. A consumer (insert airline procurement manager) would not buy a Nabisco, he would buy a Nabison Chips Ahoy. So 747 is part of what makes Boeing.

Slowly but slowly, America’s airlines have dropped the 747. Thankfully, there is still Northwest, which has operated the 747 since 1970, and has 16 747-400s that operate on the Pacific. And there is United, which has 30 747-400s.

A few have been preserved, including Francie Rehwald’s salvaged Tower Air 747 that will turn into a house. There is also a Royal Dutch KLM 747 that will be part of the Aviodrome theme park in the Netherlands. Give it up to the Europeans for appreciating one of the greatest American inventions ever!

What should be done?

• Change the question. The question is not can the 747 survive. The question is what are the core brand values of the Jumbo Jet, and how can those values be preserved under the 747 moniker? Luckily, passengers don’t know that a current 747 is quite different, technically, from a 1970 jet. But they do remember the upper deck, the double aisles, the four engines, the massive size and the shape. If all those things survived under a 747 name, then the brand would survive.
• Reposition the marketing. We can’t presume to tell Boeing about technology (and feel quite bold telling them about marketing), but we do think there is value in Boeing, in conjunction with the airlines that still use the 747, doing some sorts of promotions to tell passengers that the 747 is roomy, proven safe and the most stylish way to get somewhere. Not a big investment, but a strategic one. Basically, it would be mass market Concorde approach. Remember, people paid thousands to travel on a cramped little tube Concorde across the Atlantic. These airplanes were REALLY old when then stopped flying, but they still had appeal. While the time factor was important, what people loved was the fact that they felt like they were really flying, and the whole dang thing was just SO stylish. John Travolta can help with this one (tell John that the Douglas Commercial brand will be back and he might even bring Kelly and the Jett and the crew to a promo).
• Promote the upper deck lounge. Most middle class American chumps have never been “upstairs” and would pay dearly for dinner there. So, perhaps a $1,000 trans-Atlantic round trip could be bumped up $150 more if dinner seatings were arranged in shifts on a mostly business and first class flight. Certainly, United could justify a few of these routes. Remember, the upstairs only holds about 25 seats, so if these “tables” were turned among the business class who wanted to pay extra it would not only relieve cramped feelings, but open up the main cabin with a few empty seats facing each other. If these tables turned four times, it would be some additional revenue. Of course, that might mean a few less seats, but perhaps these could be used elsewhere.
• Quietly promote the four engines. The 747 has four engines, rather than two. Many people fear flying. While not rational, four engines is an important selling factor. But do it carefully as most airlines only have two-engine planes across the Atlantic.
• Save some early planes. Boeing should see to it that there is an early 747 at the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy. Sadly, many of the early Pan Am 747s are gone. This is a national tragedy. While the Boeing 707 at Dulles is an invaluable artifact, the 747 is not there. It, more than the 707, the 747 changed flight forever, bringing in ultra-long distances and the idea of tons of people on one plane at one time. Also, the 707 at Udvar is a technology artifact that people cannot go inside. The genius of the Eastern DC-3 at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum on the Mall is that you can see inside it and experience the logos, branding and marketing, which is a critical part of any product’s real-life history.
• Work with United and Northwest: These folks are the only American operators of the plane, and there is added brand appeal to the 747 with an American flag carrier operating an American plane. While its fun riding Lufthansa 747 (and the service is probably better) the connection with the flag gives it a new level of patriotic appeal. This matters.
• Use the 747 less. Airlines should realize that not all of the fleet has to be used 18 hours a day. Efficiency is having older aircraft that are paid for, available, clean and used, perhaps for a few less hours a day. These extras can help to balance out fleets during storms and other calamities, and would be popular on higher margin flights that could be only business and first class. Northwest is comfortable with this with its DC-9s, which seem to fly forever. This is particularly valuable with long-distance routes, which need more time for meals and cleaning and can’t get away with being Greyhound buses in the sky.

BrandlandUSA Rule

Sometimes it costs more. Sometimes doing things for seemingly irrational reasons is a bit more expensive. But if it differentiates the brand and makes for extra sales, these idiosyncratic expenditures can be worthwhile because they set your company ahead of the other generic marketing approaches.