Braniff Airways, later Braniff International Airways from 1948 until 1965, and then Braniff International from 1965 until the cessation of air operations, was an airline in the United States that operated from 1928 until 1982 and continues today as a retailer and administrative entity.

Paul R. Braniff, Inc.

On April 26, 1926, Paul Revere Braniff incorporated Braniff Air Lines, Inc., with the Oklahoma Secretary of State but it was not used for airline operations and was eventually dissolved. On May 29, 1928, insurance magnate Thomas Elmer Braniff financed and founded an aviation company with his brother Paul, called Paul R. Braniff, Inc., doing business as Tulsa-Oklahoma City Airline. On June 20, 1928, service began from Oklahoma City to Tulsa using a single-engine 5 passenger Stinson Detroiter registered as NC1929 on June 20, 1928. Paul Braniff acted as pilot of the first flight with one passenger on board. The flight operated normally to Tulsa but was delayed for the return trip by thunderstorms in the Tulsa area.

The Braniff brothers remained a part of the company as the ownership was transferred to Universal Aviation Corporation in April 1929. With the purchase of the company by Universal, the entity began operating as Braniff Air Lines, Inc. Universal was a conglomerate of smaller airlines and railways that planned a southern US coast-to-coast air and rail service. In early 1930, the company was purchased by the Aviation Corporation (AVCO) holding company, which other holdings included the predecessors of American Airlines.

Braniff Airways, Inc.

Unable to remain out of the airline business for very long and with the new possibility of an air mail contract, the Braniff brothers started a new airline in November 1930 named Braniff Airways, Inc. Braniff Airways began service among Oklahoma City, Tulsa, and Wichita Falls, Texas, with 5 passenger Lockheed Vega single-engine prop aircraft. Service expanded throughout 1931 to include Kansas City, St. Louis, and Chicago, but the company briefly shut down to reorganize in 1933. With the help of its employees, who agreed to work without pay, the company was airborne again and in less than a year their hard work would pay off.

Braniff's survival was assured when Paul Braniff, then general manager, flew to Washington, D.C., to petition for the Chicago-Dallas airmail route 9. The United States Post Office granted Braniff its first airmail route in the wake of the 1934 Air Mail scandal. In 1935, Braniff became the first airline to fly from Chicago to the U.S.–Mexico border. Paul Braniff left the airline in 1935 to pursue other interests and to tour South America for Braniff's eventual service to the region, but Tom Braniff retained control of the carrier and hired Charles Edmund Beard to run day-to-day operations. Beard became president and CEO of Braniff in 1954, and Fred Jones of Oklahoma City became chairman of the board.

Midwestern expansion

Braniff acquired Dallas-based Long and Harmon Airlines in January 1935, extending its network in Texas, and purchased it first twin-engine airliner, the Lockheed L-10A Electra. In 1937, Braniff bought its first cabin-sized twin-engine airliner the Douglas DC-2 from TWA for the extended network. With the DC-2s came the carrier's first flight attendants or Hostesses as Braniff dubbed them.

Braniff Airways acquired Ft. Worth, Texas-based Bowen Airlines, which was headquartered at Meacham Field, in January 1936. Bowen flew from Chicago to Houston via St. Louis, Springfield, Tulsa and Dallas; from Dallas to San Antonio with stops in Ft. Worth and Austin; and from Ft. Worth to Houston via Dallas. Bowen did not have any of the coveted Air Mail Contracts, and its reliance on passenger revenue caused financial strain, leading to the merger with Braniff. Bowen's slogan was "From the Great Lakes to the Gulf", which became the Braniff motto after the merger. Bowen had a fleet of Vultee V-1As, Lockheed Vegas, and Lockheed Orions built to Bowen's specifications.

Wartime Service

During the war, Braniff remanded much of its new 21-passenger Douglas DC-3 fleet to the United States Army Air Force. The DC-3 had just entered the fleet in December 1939. All of the Airline's DC-2s were given to the military for wartime service and none were accepted back into the fleet at the end of the war. Besides offering its aircraft to the United States military, it also leased its facilities at Dallas Love Field to the military, which became a training site for pilots and mechanics.

Braniff was given a contract to operate a military cargo flight between Brownsville, Texas, and Panama City/Balboa City, in the Canal Zone. The route was called the Banana Run because Braniff's pilots made agreements with the banana producers in Panama to move their bananas to the United States to sell. Because of the war, they could not fly their produce out of the country but Braniff devised at least a small way to assist the growers. Because of Braniff's superb service during the war and over the Banana Run, the Airline would be rewarded with a significant international route award just a year after the war ended.

Aerovias Braniff formed

Thomas Elmer Braniff created a Mexico-based airline, Aerovias Braniff, in 1943. Service began in March 1945, after the carrier received its operating permits from the Mexican government. Aerovias Braniff operated from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, to Monterrey and Mexico City. The new company, owned by Mr. Braniff, had three 21 passenger Douglas DC-3s that had been allocated to the carrier from the United States War Surplus Administration in February, 1945.

Mr. Braniff had applied to the federal Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) for authority to merge Aerovias Braniff with Braniff Airways, Inc. However, the Mexican government suspended Aerovias Braniff's operating permits in October 1946, under pressure from Pan American Airways, Inc., and merger of the two carriers was not approved by the CAB. Braniff was allowed to operate a charter service in Mexico for a brief period in 1947 but that was also discontinued and service was not commenced again until 1960

Latin America route award

After World War II, on May 19, 1946, the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) awarded Braniff routes to the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America, competing with Pan American-Grace Airways (Panagra). The Civil Aeronautics Board awarded Braniff a 7719 statute mile route from Dallas to Houston to Havana, Balboa, C.Z., Panama, Guayaquil, Lima, La Paz, Asuncion, and finally Buenos Aires, Argentina. At that time, the airline changed its trade name to Braniff International Airways and flights to South America via Cuba and Panama began on June 4, 1948, with a routing of Chicago – Kansas City – Dallas – Houston – Havana – Balboa, C.Z. – Guayaquil – Lima (Lima service did not begin until June 18, 1948). after construction in remote regions of Central and South America. The route was then extended in February 1949 to La Paz and in March 1949, to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Douglas DC-4s and Douglas DC-6s flew to Rio; initially DC-3s flew Lima to La Paz. Braniff was the first airline authorized by the CAB to operate JATO or Jet Assisted Takeoff aircraft (DC-4) at La Paz.

Service was extended in March 1950 from La Paz to Asuncion, Paraguay, and in May 1950 to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Argentine President Juan Perón and his famed wife Evita Peron participated in the festivities at Palace Casa Rosada in Buenos Aires. In October 1951 departures from Dallas became daily: three a week to Buenos Aires and four to Rio. (Flights to South America stopped at Miami, but Braniff didn't carry domestic passengers there.)

Mid-Continent Airlines merger

In October 1951 Braniff flew to 29 airports in the US, from Chicago and Denver south to Brownsville, Texas, to Central America, Cuba and South America.

After months of negotiations Braniff acquired Mid-Continent Airlines a small Kansas City-based trunk line on August 16, 1952. The merger added numerous cities, including Minneapolis/St. Paul, Sioux City, and Sioux Falls in the North; Des Moines, Omaha, and St. Louis in the Midwest; and Tulsa, Shreveport, and New Orleans in the South. The acquisition of the Minneapolis/St. Paul to Kansas City route (with stops in Des Moines and Rochester, Minnesota) was of particular interest to Braniff, as Mid-Continent had been awarded this route instead of Braniff in 1939.

After the merger Braniff operated 75 aircraft and over 4000 employees, including 400 pilots. In 1955 Braniff was the tenth largest US airline by passenger-miles and ninth largest by domestic passenger-miles.

With the addition of the South America route system, merger with Mid-Continent Airlines, and reduction in mail subsidy on the Mid-Continent system, Braniff International Airways recorded a US$1.8 million operating loss during 1953. Aircraft that were scheduled to be disposed of offset the loss and the company recorded a meager $11,000 net income. An increase in mail subsidy, requested by Mr. Braniff before his death, was granted in 1954, and the company returned to profitability.

Deaths of the Braniff brothers

On January 10, 1954, Braniff founder Thomas Elmer Braniff died when a flying boat owned by United Gas crash-landed on the shore of Wallace Lake, 15 miles outside of Shreveport, Louisiana, due to icing. According to information from Captain George A. Stevens: "Mr Braniff was on a hunting expedition with a group of important citizens of Louisiana. They were returning to Shreveport from a small duck hunting lake near Lake Charles, Louisiana, in a Grumman Mallard aircraft with no deicing system. The wings iced up on approach to landing in Shreveport, and the plane lost altitude. One of the wings hit cypress stumps and the plane crashed against the shore. It caught fire and all 12 lives aboard were lost."

Braniff Executive Vice President Charles Edmund Beard became the first non-Braniff family member to assume the role of president of the airline after Tom Braniff's death. Beard gathered Braniff employees together at the Braniff hangar at Dallas Love Field on January 18, 1954, to announce that the airline would move forward and assured the public that the airline would continue.

Paul R. Braniff died later that year of cancer. Tom Braniff's wife, Bess Braniff, also died in August 1954. Tom's son, Thurman Braniff, was killed in a training plane crash at Oklahoma City in 1937, and his daughter Jeanne Braniff Terrell died in 1948 from complications of childbirth.

New equipment and facilities

Beard led Braniff into the jet age. The first jets were four Boeing 707-227s; a fifth crashed on a test flight when still owned by Boeing. Braniff was the only airline to order the 707-227; in 1971 it sold them to British West Indies Airways (BWIA), an airline based in the Caribbean. Boeing 720s were added in the early 1960s. In 1965 Braniff's fleet was about half jet, comprising 707s, 720s and British Aircraft Corporation BAC One-Eleven jetliners. The long range Boeing 707-320C intercontinental model was then introduced. However, the 707, 720 and One-Eleven would all subsequently be removed from the fleet. Braniff's last piston schedule was operated with a Convair aircraft in September 1967 and the last Lockheed L-188 Electra turboprop service was flown about May 1969.

In February 1958 Braniff opened a new headquarters building at Exchange Park, a high-rise office development within sight of Dallas Love Field. The airline opened a Maintenance and Operations Base with over 433,000 square feet on the east side of Dallas Love Field at 7701 Lemmon Avenue in late 1958. The airline would occupy the facility until the late 1980s, with the Braniff, Inc. (Braniff II) holding company, Dalfort, remaining there until 2001.

Supersonic transport