Braniff International was an airline founded at the end of the 1920s by brothers Paul and Tom Braniff. Originally flying from Oklahoma to Tulsa, it eventually based itself in Dallas and flew all over the United States.
Remarkably, the airline became the only American carrier to fly the supersonic Concorde, using them for flights from Washington DC to Dallas Fort Worth during 1979 and 1980. Noted for having one of the most beautiful aircraft liveries in the world, the airline eventually ceased operations on 12 May 1982.
Braniff International Video
Following on from the last video about American Trans Air or ATA Airlines, this time around we have a look at what happened to Braniff. This is a short video, running for just under seven minutes.
This focusses mainly on how the airline ended up going bankrupt. Deregulation of the US airline industry in 1978 saw Braniff International expand rapidly to gain market share, even going international.
Competition from other airlines with bases at DFW, coupled with the 1979 oil crisis and subsequent recession from 1980 put huge pressure on the operation. Finances were in tatters and despite trying, they were unable to get ahead.
The video really gives a very high level overview of what went wrong, but a longer history is available on Wikipedia. Their marketing and branding is legendary in the aviation industry.
Overall Thoughts
It is a shame to see such a storied airline such as Braniff International have to close, but that’s business. The leaders of this airline made the wrong decisions at the wrong time and paid for it.
There are some glorious photographs here and that page has links at the bottom that may be interesting. It was certainly a colourful airline at various stages, that’s for sure! Big fans of the airline can also buy branded merchandise in the Braniff Boutique, it seems.
Did you ever fly with Braniff International? What were they like? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image via the Braniff Airways Foundation.
Yes I remember Braniff. Flown aboard Braniff many times in First Class. Flew their 707, 727, and BAC 1-11. Very colorful airline. Great inflight experience. Food was a stand out. Stewardesses wore clear “space helmets” during rainy weather. Sad when it ceased flying
I’ve seen photos of the space helmets along with their designer uniforms. They certainly looked chic. Excellent that you have flown with them many times – what an experience that must have been!! Thanks for that.
Flew them DAL-MEX-ACA-DAL when I was 4 in 1969. I don’t remember anything about the flights but as we were non-revving, we stopped in MEX for a few days and then flew BN MEX-ACA, a Mexican domestic sector. Apparently that was allowed as BN didn’t technically sell the domestic sector as it was part of a stop-over itinerary. I have no idea if that is still allowed, or if any airlines operate domestic tags in other countries these days.
I would have been very surprised if you had remembered anything about the flights at that age 🙂 I am not sure if any airlines operate wholly domestic tags in other countries. Checking out a fifth freedom rights page would probably be handy!
My mom was a ticket agent for 30 years with Braniff and it was such a WONDERFUL era, and I was lucky enough to have experienced what a lot of my classmates didn’t. I never flew coach until I got married in 1987 and it was a shock to have to do that. Braniff was my mother’s whole existence and purpose in life. She was especially devastated when they went under and it affected our family emotionally and financially. However, every time they resurrected and renamed themselves, she went back and stayed until the very last day. I feel so blessed and privileged that I remember back when it was classy to dress up to fly on a beautiful plane with even more beautiful flight attendants and pilots. Those were great times!
Sorry to hear the airline going under had such an affect on the family. I think that happens in any family where there are job losses. Having been through three redundancies myself, it’s certainly not for the faint hearted. Sounds like you Mom really loved Braniff, especially if she went back each time they were resurrected. Regardless of how it all ended, seems like plenty of fond memories there too! Thank you for the comment.
Nice video, but it didn’t mention the dirty tricks pulled on Braniff by some, such as American Airlines, during its final days that helped shove Braniff over the cliff. These dirty tricks included asking Braniff to hold seats for American connecting passengers who never appeared because they didn’t actually exist (which meant Braniff flights went out with more empty seats than expected), and also hanging on to claims for passenger-fare payment until a large enough dollar amount had accumulated to make it very painful for Braniff to pay American.
I had heard a tiny bit about this, which is terrible. I’ll have to read some more in detail on it, because it’s always fascinating the lengths the competition will go to in order to inflict some pain. I think this happens less now, but there have been dirty tricks in the airline industry like this reported here and there. The ones you list are pretty nefarious. Thanks for that!
Thank you. My experience growing up was quite similar to those expressed by Kimberly in her post above. My mother worked in reservations and as a ticket agent for Braniff from 1957 until it went bankrupt, and then once again with its first resurrection. The reports of the dirty tricks that I mentioned in my post played by American Airlines on Braniff came directly from my mother’s personal experiences during those final months of Braniff. She also told me that at that time American Airlines actually had a special “Dirty Tricks” department to do these foul, unethical things. To this day, I never fly American Airlines unless I have no choice.
I can completely understand your feelings on that one! It’s always the employees who get hurt in the end, never a good thing.
Braniff was my first airline to grant me access to their private lounges, I flew them regularly especially the “Super Carrot” to HNL. Oh those blue velvet first class seats and food service was incredible.
I’ve heard the airline had some great on board service. Sounds like you experienced the good times there! Thanks for the comment.
My Dad flew them as a passenger once and brought home a piece of Braniff bar soap. The lavatories didn’t use liquid soap in those days. I later flew aboard a different Braniff, the one with a Kansas City hub around 1986.
For awhile, I had an airline soap collection but it was just Braniff, TWA, Japan Air Lines and an unidentified bar with a red label and no print.
Cool! Red label, who was red? TWA? And a few others, I’ll bet.
That’s cool, shame it wasn’t the original one. I think there were a few iterations of Braniff after the first one.
I work at AA. I worked with a guy who worked for Braniff. He said that there were pilots and flight attendants who didn’t cash their last 2-3 paychecks. The company filed for bankruptcy and then those FAs and Pilots became creditors.
My advice, always cash your check as soon as you get it.
Agree with you 100%, I never leave things like that laying around. It’s perhaps less of an issue nowadays with direct bank transfers for your pay. Thanks for the comment!