潘姆(Pan Am)在许多方面代表美国的独特“蓝球”制服。照片:PAN AM历史基础
Editor's note: To mark the 25th anniversary of Pan Am's last flight, Travel Market Report offers up a look down memory lane to the glory days of the great airline, in which former executives and travel agents share their favorite stories of Big Blue.Part twoappeared Wed., Dec. 14.
自1991年12月4日,泛美世界航空公司(Pan American World Airways)飞行了最后一次飞行以来,世界从未见过类似的事物。这家航空公司是真正的航空先驱。它推出了预定的客运服务,并且是第一个进行10,000英里跨太平洋穿越的航空公司。Pan Am迎来了商业喷气式服务和波音公司的747 Jumbo Jet,这使国际旅行可用于大众。
潘姆(Pan Am)是近50年来最迷人的旅行方式,是全球名人和贵宾的首选载体。
Started in 1927, the brainchild of entrepreneur Juan Trippe, Pan Am began carrying mail from Key West, FL, to Havana. A year later, it was carrying passengers, too.
在接下来的64年中,Pan Am是世界历史的亲密部分。它于1964年将甲壳虫乐队飞往美国,在众多美国总统大选中运送了新闻界,这是它在越南战争结束时西贡倒塌的许多越南家庭的生命线。
In an era when airlines were highly regulated in the United States and abroad, Pan Am blossomed into a commercial powerhouse when nation’s owned their airlines. Despite it being privately owned, Pan Am was designated a “flag carrier,” a virtual extension of the U.S. government.
它与美国非常紧密,以至于1988年12月,它是利比亚恐怖分子的目标,他们在洛克比·苏格兰(Lockerbie Scotland)上击落了潘姆(Pan Am)103号航班,波音747。洛克比(Lockbie)的爆炸案夺走了243名乘客的生命 - 当飞机散布在苏格兰乡村时,这是11名当地人。三年后,轰炸及其影响也导致了潘姆的灭亡。
In today’s deregulated global airline industry, with mergers, code share agreements and cross-border holding companies, the essence of Pan Am, and to some degree its arch rival Trans World Airlines, is hard to feel and remember.
这就是为什么beplay客服最近,与许多前PAN AM员工和高管进行了交谈,讨论了他们最喜欢的回忆。我们在这里庆祝航空公司和旅行,尤其是国际旅行的时代是独特而特别的事情。
“A privileged life”
长期的员工和执行官杰夫·克里恩勒(Jeff Kriendler)是潘姆(Pan Am)公司通讯副总裁,当时承运人关闭,与天主教修女(Teresa)成为朋友,他是在印度最突出的麻风病人的天主教修女。
“She was our patron saint,” Kriendler said, recalling the many times he escorted her on trips to and from the U.S. Kriendler, who is Jewish, spent so much time with the nun that she designated him her “rabbi at Pan Am.”
克里夫勒(Kriendler)记得特雷莎(Teresa)母亲在其曼哈顿公园大道总部参观了潘姆呼叫中心时有一次。他说:“我们雇用了一个从斯洛文尼亚(特雷莎的家园)移民的女人,她很高兴见到她。”克里恩勒说,特蕾莎修女一直在飞行潘姆,当她上车时,空姐将绕着帽子捐赠给她的慈善传教士。
“It was a very privileged life we led, working for America’s flag carrier to the world,” he said. “We felt like we were part of America.”
Armand Arel说,当当地人得知您在Pan Am工作时,您几乎是名人,他自己几乎是名人。“这是一项非常令人满意的工作。我从没说过TGIF。”
Arel was in Paris in 1984 serving as regional managing director, Iberia, Switzerland, and the Nagreb, when Pan Am said it would purchase 28 aircraft from the European Airbus consortium. Airbus manufactured part of the planes in France, and was struggling for legitimacy in the U.S., competing against Boeing.
“When I made that announcement in Paris, and was interviewed on the big local news stations, it was the top of the news that night. For a few days, people would recognize me on the street, or in a restaurant, and thank me for supporting the French,” Arel said.
Arel recalled other memorable events, like dealing with Ariel Sharon’s security team when he was stationed out of Miami. The Israeli prime minister was flying Pan Am, transiting through Miami to Brazil, and Arel needed to help ensure his flights were screened for any threat. “We had to pull apart the aircraft’s air conditioning vents so they could inspect them,” Arel said.
麻烦时期的特殊待遇
C. W. “Pete” Runnette was senior vice president for Pan Am’s Atlantic division, his work spanning all the way from Ireland to India. Runnette remembers once, in the early 80s, getting a call at his London office from local Pan Am employees in Karachi, Pakistan. A Pan Am 747 had hydroplaned off the runway and was stuck in a ditch at the Karachi airport.
“这是由我们的一位机械师对其进行检查的,他认为这是可以挽救的,”目前是Pan Am历史基金会总裁Runnette回忆说。巴基斯坦军事和民航局希望这架飞机立即拆除。
当Runnette到达卡拉奇时,Pan AM工人已经能够将巨型喷气式飞机拖到跑道上。“那是午夜左右。鼻子齿轮被压碎了。The airport authority said ‘we have planes in the air waiting to land, so get it off the runway or it has to go back in the ditch.’ If it had to go back, they warned ‘we’re going to blow it up.’ We had five minutes to decide what to do,” Runnette recalled.
With assistance from a Pakistani military major and some earnest Pakistani airport workers, the Pan Am crew was able to jerry rig a metal support for the landing gear, enough to tug the jumbo to a safe place where it could be worked on and salvaged. To say thank you, Pan Am invited the major who came up with the idea to London.
“We were the hallmark of commercial aviation. And they were happy to have us flying into Karachi. So they wanted to help,” Runnette said.
悬挂国旗
The American government was also none too shy to help Pan Am when it could. Bob Harrell worked for Pan Am for 16 years, with his last job in international treasury.
有一天,在80年代的某个时候,哈雷尔(Harrell)在当时的首席执行官埃德·阿克尔(Ed Acker)亲自被亲自攻击。哈雷尔说:“尼日利亚的国家欠了潘·阿姆大约1800万美元。”“阿克尔叫我进入他的办公室,说‘我想让你乘坐尼日利亚并获得四分之三的返回。”因此,哈雷尔(Harrell)离开了,当两人到达尼日利亚拉各斯时,与Runnette见面。
“我们去了该国中央银行与他们的高管开会。他们告诉我们“不”,他们绝对不会退还他们欠我们的任何钱。”经过2-3天的来回通讯,哈雷尔意识到他们需要帮助,他们与美国大使联系了这种情况。
“第二天早上,美国大使派出的酒店前面出现了黑色豪华轿车。我们在尼日利亚总统任命。这次,我们开车去了国会大厦。我永远不会忘记看到豪华轿车在风中飘扬的豪华轿车前角的美国国旗。我们被迎来并会见了该国总统。我回来了1500万美元。”
When he returned to New York, Harrell, who today runs a consulting firm that studies airfares, said he got a personal note from Acker. “Thanks for a great job.”
And often, that respect was held by other country’s government officials as well. Lou Hammond, chairman and founder, Lou Hammond & Associates, New York, worked in Pan Am public relations in 1981 when China decided to open up commercial passenger air service to the U.S.
哈蒙德回忆说:“对于潘姆来说,这是一个重要的时刻,但几乎没有发生。”“白宫颁布了竞争对手曼联将获得这条路线的法令。中国人停滞不前,说这是自20多岁起必须是他们忠实伙伴的潘·AM。他们仍然固执,发生了。一夜之间,我要把一个新闻组合在一起,而Trippe鸟则创造了历史。”
哈蒙德说:“始终是创新者,潘姆设定了标准。”“当我们需要时,它们在哪里?”