The A310 was a wonderful airplane. I was a new Delta flight attendant in 1994-95 and remember working on them from jfk to Lisbon and San Francisco before they left the fleet. Great wide body that had an amazingly short main cabin….you were done with the main cabin service in the blink of an eye.

By this point, PanAm was already in steep decline, with assets and landing slots being sold off left and right. As a primarily international carrier, they couldn’t compete with their domestic counterparts, once deregulation occurred. They suddenly found themselves with limited connectivity inside the huge domestic US market (and weirdly thought buying North-South oriented National would somehow alleviate their international feeder issue), whereas the larger domestic carriers (who were historically less glamorous, but had larger fleets, capitalizations and revenue generation), were able to quickly buy their way into main-line international markets and capitalize on their large, efficient, domestic hubs. They were able to offer single-carrier options and undercut PanAm, which PanAm was structurally ill-suited to address. The last time I flew PanAm, with my family in 1989, the nearly 20 year old 747 we flew on was looking distressingly shabby and worn (a combination of age and lack of refurbishment), a sharp contrast to the gleaming Northwest 744 I’d been on just a few months earlier, and a far cry from PanAm just 5 years earlier. The cabin crew were still among the best in the industry, but it was obvious that PanAm was circling the drain (and it had been only a few months earlier that the airline suffered the tragedy of flight 103). Less than two years later, PanAm was gone. How could PanAm have avoided their fate? Starting with the first oil crisis, they should have reduced their 747 fleet size and invested in the smaller wide body trijet’s of the era. This alone would have changed their per-seat competitive position later in the 70’s, allowed them to better weather the second oil shock, and put them in a position to begin filtering in twin-engine ETOPS-certified aircraft in the early 80’s, such as the 767 and A300/310. They should have further expanded their international hub operations, essentially building an inverse version of their domestic counterparts (versus eventually selling them off). Finally, they absolutely should not have dropped their order for 50 A320’s to replace their antiquated 727’s, which were grossly inefficient by the mid 80’s (having been superseded by Boeing’s own 737-300/400/500). PanAm’s biggest failing, from the mid 70’s through the mid 80’s, was a failure to adapt, expand where others weren’t, and continually invest in fleet modernization - the very things that made them successful. In short, they needed Juan Trippe, but unfortunately got William Seawell, a man with no vision or imagination. So, like many once-great companies led by highly credentialed but untalented management, they kept trying to copy others and shrink their way to profitability.

People often forget that 1991 wasn’t the end of Pan Am, yet.. In 1996, Pan Am was revived with a fleet of 737-400s and the same fleet of A300s and A310s. That ended up shutting down in 1998 after a merger with Carnival Airlines. In 2001, Pan Am was revived a second time, not much is known about this second revival however, but it is known that it operated 727s and 737s. This ended up shutting down in 2004. Which means that Pan Am finally met its end 2 years before KZfaq was created, which makes you realize that it really hasn’t been that long.

My late maternal grandfather worked for Pan Am. I decided to watch this safety video to honor him as his life was tragically claimed at the age of 87 when a tornado hit Western Kentucky in December 2021. RIP grandpa. May you enjoy your eternity in the Land of Oz.

The Time Magazine issue "Gorbachev's Revolution," seen at 3:36, was dated July 27, 1987.

The Flight Attendants were happy. The passengers were polite and well dressed. And no one was fighting like dogs over space in the overhead bins. There was a time when air travel had a certain classy aspect to it before it became a flying bus that it is today. First class was really first class and passengers were pampered. Now first class in the US us "Coach Plus" with mostly upgrades and very devalued. Air travel was a big deal in the 60's, 70's and into the 80's. It's a flying bus now.

The last airbus generation Panam existed for. I can only imagine what it would have been like to ride panam on an A350 or A380.

No phones love it ! I flew w my mother as a baby from Costa Rica 🇨🇷🇨🇷 to honduras

“immediately extinguish all cigarettes” 😅

You can't beat The Experience... Pan AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM! 🤣

I remember flying in the A310 from MIA-JFK in 1987 and the seats were salmon/pink color, not blue.

Everyone seems immaculately dressed; no thongs ,T shirts or shorts!!

Well hell I feel like I'm getting ready to take off!

Return to Seat > Gobacken Sidonna

I like how the guy quite leisurely extinguishes his cigarette when the oxygen mask drops down… clearly a non- emergency

This is great! What memories. Does a Pan Am 747 safety demo video exist online? I haven't been able to find one.

"And then assist the child.." The kid is smiling and acting like this happens every day.. In reality she'd be screaming her head off.. crying and likely scared shitless!

I wish pan am is back again 💝💝💝

A310 Safety Video 1984

This is from 1990.

I can't believe everyone was so calm. If i was On a plane I would go crazy. Just sayin

💙

We here at Panam want to assure you we no longer employ young runaways pretending to be pilots. All our pilots are checked by Tom Hanks personally to make sure that FUCKING DiCaprio doesn't fly onboard this plane

PAN AM

The days when smoking was allowed on commercial planes.

Smoking was allowed in the plane 😂?

2:01 "Depressurization is fun, Mommy!"

no real change, besides the smoking part

They actually showed HOW the mask dropped and how the thing inflated. Instead of what they do now!

Back in the day when it was more common for men to wear suits and women dresses.

The manga was better.

Boeing>Airbus