SealBeach

With UA's recent announcement about the JFK-LHR route shutting down, I'm trying to remember where that route came from in the first place. My recollection is that it had something to do with deals that Pan Am cut with United and Delta as it was slipping away, but I'm not sure (IIRC it was about the same time TWA sold its JFW-LHR route to AA). While I'm on the subject, can someone please remind me about how Pan Am's FF program got tied in to Mileage Plus and SkyMiles? I seem to recall some Pan Am miles getting dumped into both those programs. And finally, as an aside, what ever happened to all the routes that Pan Am used to fly out of Frankfurt to other European cities?

TIA.

ClipperDelta

UA's LHR access and operations were purchased from Pan Am. The transaction closed around Spring 1991 for US$290 million and some other amounts for a few 747-200s; IIRC the whole deal came to approx. US$400m. As a result of the purchase, UA took over PA's LHR-JFK/IAD/SFO/LAX/SEA routes in April '91. PA retained LON-DTW and MIA and had to switch them to LGW-DTW and LGW-MIA instead as UA had taken PA's slot as one of two designated LHR US carriers. TW continued as the other LHR U.S. carrier until Carl Icahn saw what cash he could command if he too sold TW's LHR rights (one of the official reasons was that TW was a weak carrier by then and would not have the resources to compete with a 900-pound gorilla such as UA in the LHR market). TW subsequently sold its LHR rights to AA, which did not want to be left behind since its arch-rival now had access to LHR.

Delta's purchase of the rest of PA's transatlantic operations (including the intra-Europe spokes out of FRA) happened later in 1991 as a separate deal (which also included the Pan Am Shuttle between LGA and BOS/DCA), as Pan Am's condition continued to worsen. The DL takeover of PA's other transatlantic routes took effect Nov 1 1991. By then, PA was just flying to Latin America/Carribbean mostly out of MIA with some JFK service and retained one single transatlantic routes MIA-CDG. DL then became the 'sugar daddy' of PA, until Dec 4 1991 when DL finally pulled the plug, citing that PA was like a black hole...
DL flew many of the former PA intra-Europe flights out of FRA (to WAW, PRG, BUD, OTP, SVO, IST, ATH, etc.) for a few years before totally scrapping the FRA hub in the mid-90s. PA's IGS (the intra-German flights out of TXL) was purchased earlier by Lufthansa in a separate dela and wasn't part of the DL-PA deal.

Pan Am's FF program, Worldpass was merged into DL's FF program after the DL-PA deal happened. DL took over all of the outstanding PA WorldPass miles though DL's redemption program was a lot tougher than PA's. I can't really remember too much about the WorldPass/MileagePlus agreement when the LHR routes went but there was some provision for redemption of miles for LHR flights on UA for 12-18 months. I don't believe there was an option to transfer mileage balances between the two programs.

Kurt

Great summary, ClipperDelta. I sometimes wonder what the "new" Pan Am would look like today if Delta had not pulled the rug out in 12/91. The focus on South America from a MIA hub certainly had potential - look what AA has done with MIA since then.

SealBeach

Wow, amazing summary, ClipperDelta. Thanks very much.

roberto99

That was a great summary!

However, UA got some of PA's 747-100's. These were in quite ratty condition and even included some of the earliest "3 window coupes." But UA repainted them and flew them for years after the purchase.

Most of UA's 747-200's were purchased used from Qantas. (The -200's without the circular staircase were built for UA for use on the JFK-NRT route). I thought that it was ironic after reading a travel magazine (in the Doctor's office) showing a Qantas ad with A 747-200 being "white-tailed" for sale. The ad read, "When they get this old, we don't want them anymore. We replace them with NEW 747-400's". Months later, these -200's were flying UA's mainline with new paint.

ContinentalFan

Nice summary ClipperDelta. United did a clever thing by buying LHR. United bought PA's Pacific routes some time before LHR, so management and the negotiating teams were familiar with one another.

roberto99

Wolf used to work with an exec of PA. The deal was too cheap to satisfy the PA stockholders. Wolf "paid" the exec back when he handed the IAD UX deal to DH some years ago (DH was the startup commuter airline of the same PA exec).