Trans World Airlines

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Trans World Airlines
IATA TW	ICAO TWA	Callsign TWA
Founded		1925 (as Western Air Express)
Hubs		Lambert-Saint Louis International Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport
Focus cities		Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport Los Angeles International Airport Charles de Gaulle International Airport
Frequent flyer program		Aviators
Member lounge		Ambassadors Club
Fleet size		190
Destinations		132
Parent company		Trans World Airlines, Inc.
Headquarters		St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Key people		Dick Robbins (1930-34), Jack Frye and Paul E. Richter (1931-1947),Howard Hughes (1939-65), Ralph Damon (1949-56), Carter Burgess (1956-57), Charles Thomas (1958-60), Charles Tillinghast (1961-76), L.E. Smart (1976-), C.E. Meyer Jr. (1976-85), Carl Icahn (1985-93), William R. Howard (1993-94), Jeffrey H. Erickson (1994-97), Gerald L. Gitner (1997-99), William Compton (1999-01)
Website:

Trans World Airlines (IATA: TW, ICAO: TWA, and Callsign: TWA), commonly known as TWA, was an American airline company that was acquired by American Airlines in April 2001. For many years it was headquartered at the Kansas City Downtown Airport, as well as midtown Manhattan in New York City. At the time of its buyout, it was headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, and used the airport nearby, Lambert-Saint Louis International Airport, as its major hub. TWA once shared the U.S. international air market with fellow pioneer Pan American World Airways.

Contents 1 Early history 2 Golden era 2.1 Jack Frye, Paul E. Richter, Walter Hamilton 2.2 Jack Frye, Paul E. Richter, Howard Hughes 2.3 Charles C. Tillinghast Jr. 2.3.1 Revolutionary airport design 2.3.1.1 John F. Kennedy International Airport 2.3.1.2 Kansas City International Airport 2.3.2 All-jet fleet 2.4 Dominance of the trans-Atlantic market 3 Financial difficulties 3.1 1992 bankruptcy 3.2 1995 bankruptcy 3.3 TWA Flight 800 3.4 Short turn around 3.5 2001 bankruptcy and acquisition by American Airlines 4 Terrorist target 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Early history

On May 1, 1930, Western Air Express, with Harris "Pop" Hanshue as President, acquired the successful Standard Airlines, subsidiary of Aero Corp. of California founded in 1926 by Jack Frye, Paul E. Richter and Walter Hamilton (known as "The Three Musketeers of Aviation"). Transcontinental and Western Air (TWA) emerged in October 1930, with Hanshue as the first President, when Postmaster General Walter Folger Brown, under President Herbert Hoover, forced Western Air Express and Transcontinental Air Transport (T-A-T) to merge in order to get an air mail contract. This became known as the Air Mail Scandal. Transcontinental was the bigger of the two airlines and had the marquee expertise of Charles Lindbergh and economic power of founder Clement Melville Keys (chairman of airplane manufacturer Curtiss-Wright), while Western Air was the slightly older line (founded in July 13, 1925). They agreed to merge on July 16, 1930. The newly merged company's headquarters was in Kansas City, Missouri.^[1]

Transcontinental in 1929 had initiated a 48-hour cross country train and plane route with a stopover in Kansas City. The merged airline offered a plane-only cross country trip, inaugurated October 25, 1930, called the Lindbergh Route. The route took 36 hours coast to coast that initially also called for overnights in Kansas City.

[edit] Golden era

[edit] Jack Frye, Paul E. Richter, Walter Hamilton

In 1931 Jack Frye, Paul E. Richter and Walter Hamilton transitioned into TWA through Western Air Express and their Standard Airlines.

The airline nearly went out of business in the wake of the 1931 crash of TWA Flight 599 from Kansas City to Wichita that killed University of Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne. On May 4, 1931, the U.S. Department of Commerce grounded all Fokker F-10s, the type of aircraft involved in the Rockne crash.

On May 20, 1931, Northrop Alpha service started from Los Angeles to Newark.

TWA relocated from New York to Kansas City, Mo., in summer 1931.

Keys left the aviation business in 1932 when government regulation forced aircraft builders to divest themselves of airline subsidiaries.

In 1932 Richard Robbins, TWA's President, requested that Vice Pres. Jack Frye write to aircraft companies for replacement of the company's fleet of Fokker Trimotors, the type that was involved in the Rockne crash. Donald Douglas responded and Frye, Richter, D.W. "Tommy" Tomlinson and Lindbergh went to Douglas with their request. The specifications were the result of Tomlinson's "High Altitude Research" testing and his engineering expertise. In 1932 the Northrop Gamma was put in service for mail and overweather high altitude research.

On September 20, 1932, the contract was signed with Douglas and the DC-1 was delivered to TWA in December 1933. The result was the one and only DC-1. The new aircraft was ultimately to evolve into the DC-3. Throughout 1934 Tomlinson and Richter tested the DC-1 and Tomlinson's extensive testing in 1934 and 1935 lead to higher altitude "over weather flying" and cabin pressurization.

On February 9, 1934, President Franklin Roosevelt hit the airline hard by cancelling all mail contracts and instead allowing the Army Air Corps to carry the mail, which proved deadly. The Air Mail Act of 1934 dissolved the forced Transcontinental and Western merger. However, Transcontinental & Western Air added Inc. to the name and remained TWA. Hanshue split off with his Western Air. On February 18, 1934, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, Frye and a TWA team including "Tommy" Tomlinson, Larry Fritz and Paul E. Richter, Si Morehouse, Harlan Hull, John Collings and Andy Andrews flew a prototype of the DC-1 from Burbank, California, to Newark, New Jersey, in a record-breaking 13 hours and 4 minutes. This flight was to prove the benefit of airline mail contracts, but Roosevelt's decree still resulted in the furlough of all TWA personnel on February 28, 1934. Roosevelt doomed the airlines and the many inexperienced Army airmen that lost their lives until the last Air Corps flight on June 1. In May 1934, the airlines were again awarded mail routes and resumed contract mail service.

On May 18, 1934, the DC-2 production version of the DC-1 and forerunner of the DC-3 entered commercial service on TWA's Columbus-Pittsburgh-Newark route.

On December 27, 1934 Jack Frye became President, Paul E. Richter, Vice Pres., Walt Hamilton, V.P. Maintenance with managers Lawrence G. "Larry" Fritz, and Tommy Tomlinson, the leader in "High Altitude Research" for Over Weather Flying.

In 1935 Tomlinson and Northrop Gamma (turbo-supercharged) began High Altitude research, and the last of 14 TWA Northrop Alphas were phased out.

On November 16, 1936, Paul E. Richter headed the airline's Boeing 307 talks.

On January 29, 1937, TWA contracted with Boeing for five Boeing 307 "Stratoliners", the first commercial plane with a pressurized cabin. The first TWA Stratoliner was delivered on May 6, 1940.

In 1938 Paul E. Richter was elected Executive Vice President, Lawrence G. "Larry" Fritz became Vice Pres. of Operations, and Tomlinson Vice Pres. of Engineering. TWA received the San Francisco to Chicago route.

[edit] Jack Frye, Paul E. Richter, Howard Hughes

Jack Frye, President, and Paul E. Richter, Executive Vice President of Transcontinental & Western Air, Inc. owned TWA stock with the controlling interest of Lehman Bros. and Hertz.

In April 1939, in an effort to gain greater control of the airline, Richter and Frye convinced a friend from the 1920s, Howard Hughes, to buy into TWA.

Transcontinental & Western Air, TWA, was known as "The Airline Run by Flyers". An award winning ad in 1939 featured Executive Vice President, Paul E. Richter, in captain's uniform in the left seat of a DC-3. It was entitled "The Boss is Bringing in the Sky Chief". As a full-page ad, it appeared in all the major newspapers in the country and was acclaimed as the best ad of the year.

On June 22, 1939, Hughes Tool Co. ordered 40 Lockheed Constellations. On July 8, 1940, TWA inaugurated Boeing 307 Stratoliner service.

The airline expanded dramatically under the leadership of President Jack Frye and Exec. V.P. Paul Richter.

Hughes's involvement was his interest in and financing of the Lockheed Constellation. On April 17, 1944, Hughes and Frye flew the Constellation (C-69 USAAF #43-10310) from Burbank to Washington, D.C. in an unofficial record 6 hours 58 minutes.

After breaking Pan American World Airways' legal designation as the United States' sole international carrier, TWA began trans-Atlantic service in 1946 using new elegant Lockheed Constellation (the "Connies") aircraft, changing its name to The Trans World Airline.

After WWII TWA was also a major force in the founding of Saudi Arabian Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, and a newly revived Lufthansa. Airlines from around the world sent their pilots to TWA for training.

In 1946, one of the most difficult times for the entire airline industry, Howard Hughes offered $10 million to stem the tide for TWA. United reportedly needed $53 million to stay in business. Not until late 1946 did Hughes take an active part in the administration of the airline. He had marginal knowledge of operating a business, much less an airline, but had acquired controlling interest during WWII. Through his man, Noah Dietrich, Hughes dictated to management a 50% cut across the board as a solution to the financial problems. Earlier in 1946 Richter and Frye proposed issuing additional stock when the market was at $53 a share. That sale would have comfortably financed TWA through the tough times of a recession, the first pilots strike and grounding of the Constellation. Hughes refused to dilute his shares at the most advantageous time and by fall of 1946 the stock had fallen to $10. In December 1946, Hughes loaded the TWA Board of Directors with men from the Hughes Tool Co., and by January 1947 only two of the original TWA executives, Paul E. Richter and John A. Collings, remained.

Frye and Richter disagreed with the policies of Howard Hughes and his non-flying board. Jack Frye resigned in February 1947, leaving Paul Richter to operate the airline until his resignation from the Board of Directors and as Executive Vice President in April 1947.

Thus ended the era of "The Airline Run by Flyers". Beginning in 1926 with their Aero Corp. of Ca. and Standard Airlines, a one-plane operation, Jack Frye and Paul E. Richter and Walter Hamilton pioneered Transcontinental & Western Air to a Trans World Airline. TWA had established routes from Europe to Asia during the late 1940s and 1950s, flying its aircraft as far east as Hong Kong.

Throughout the next two decades, TWA suffered constant short-term and short-sighted management, with the exception of the able and highly regarded Ralph Damon. TWA survived partly due to the airline's legal maneuvering of the 40's that eliminated a possible competitive threat from American Overseas Airlines, affiliated with American Airlines, relegating them to non-scheduled charter service only and eventually forcing them out of all European-U.S. service by 1950. As a result, TWA and Pan Am were the only U.S. airlines that served Europe until the 1970s.

In 1950, the airline officially changed its name to Trans World Airlines. Between 1954 and 1958 it moved its executive offices from its landmark downtown Kansas City building to New York City. However, the servicing of the fleet continued to be handled in Kansas City, Kansas. Initially, servicing was at a former B-25 Mitchell bomber factory at Fairfax Airport. When the Great Flood of 1951 destroyed the facility, the city of Kansas City built TWA a 5,000-acre airport on farmland 15 miles north of downtown at what was to become Kansas City International Airport. At its peak, the airline was one of Kansas City's biggest employers with more than 20,000 employees.

In the 1950s the TWA Moonliner was the tallest structure at Disneyland and depicted atomic-powered travel to come in 1986.

TWA suffered from its late entry to the jet age and in 1956 Hughes placed an order for 63 Convair 880s at a cost of $400 million. The transaction was to ultimately result in Hughes losing control of the airline because outside creditors financing the deal did not want Hughes controlling development and operation of aircraft.

[edit] Charles C. Tillinghast Jr.

In 1961, TWA became the first international all-jet airline, with their last piston-powered flight in the Lockheed 1649 Starliner from Rome to New York. That same year, TWA began showing the first inflight movies.

Hughes formally relinquished power in 1961 in the battle of the purchase of the Convairs. In the deal, Charles C. Tillinghast Jr. became chairman and was to oversee the airline until 1976. The battle over Hughes' control was to continue until a court order in 1966 forced him to sell his stock at a profit of $546 million (which he used to create new airline Hughes Airwest).

Under new corporate management, the Trans World Corporation (TWA's holding company) expanded to purchase the overseas operations of Hilton Hotels.

[edit] Revolutionary airport design

TWA was one of the first airlines in the world to embrace the spoke-hub distribution paradigm. TWA was one of the first airlines to use the Boeing 747 and it planned to use the 747 along with the anticipated supersonic transport to whisk people between the West/Midwest (via Kansas City) and New York City (via John F. Kennedy International Airport) to European and other world destinations. As part of this strategy, TWA's hub airports were to be designed so that gates would be close to the street. However the TWA-style airport design was to prove impractical and costly when Cuban hijackings in the late 1960s, followed by more sinister and deadly Mideast hijackings, required central security checkpoints.

[edit] John F. Kennedy International Airport

In 1962 TWA opened Terminal 5 at New York City's JFK Airport. The TWA Flight Center, as it was originally known, was designed by Eero Saarinen. The terminal has been described as a "lyrical expression of the unified sculptural forms that could be created in reinforced concrete before the age of computer-aided design." But it proved to be a costly security nightmare. After the demise of TWA, the terminal was disused for airline service but served as a filming location for several productions including Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. The terminal is now being renovated for JetBlue Airways' future Kennedy Airport operations. The historic structure will be linked to a new structure.^[2]

[edit] Kansas City International Airport

Kansas City approved a $150 million bond issue for the TWA hub there. TWA vetoed plans for a Dulles International Airport-style hub-and-spoke gate structure. Following union strife, the airport ultimately cost $250 million when it opened in 1972, with Spiro Agnew officiating. TWA's gates, which were conceived of being within 100 feet of the street, were likewise to become obsolete because of security. When Kansas City refused to rebuild its terminals (even as Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport rebuilt its similarly designed terminals), TWA began looking elsewhere. Missouri politicians moved to keep it in the state. In 1982 TWA began a decade long move to Lambert International Airport in St. Louis, Missouri.

[edit] All-jet fleet

On April 7, 1967, TWA became one of the world's first all-jet airlines with the retirement of their last Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation and L-1649 Starliner aircraft. That morning throughout the TWA system, aircraft ground service personnel placed a booklet on every passenger seat titled "Props Are For Boats."

By 1969, TWA had eclipsed Pan American World Airways' one-time Atlantic dominance. And in the Transpacific Route Case of 1969, TWA was given authority to extend its route network across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii, Japan, and Taiwan.

In 1969 TWA opened the Breech Academy on a 25-acre campus in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, Kansas, to train its flight attendants, ticket and travel agents, as well as providing flight simulators for its pilots. It became the definitive training facility and other airlines sent their staff to it.

The airline continued to aggressively expand European operations throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. In 1987, TWA could boast of a trans-Atlantic system that stretched from Los Angeles to Bombay, including virtually every major European population center, with gateways from the United States in 10 major cities.

[edit] Dominance of the trans-Atlantic market

TWA's zenith would occur in the summer of 1988, when, for the first and only time, the airline would carry more than 50 percent of all the trans-Atlantic passengers to fly across the ocean. Every day, Boeing 747, Lockheed L-1011, and Boeing 767 aircraft would depart to more than 30 cities in Europe, fed by a small but effective domestic operation focused on moving U.S. passengers to New York or other gateway cities for widebody service across the Atlantic, while a similar inter-European operation would shuttle non-U.S. passengers to TWA's European gateways for travel to the U.S. This glory would be short lived with entry into the trans-Atlantic market by additional U.S. carriers such as American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines, all hungry to expand and with the financing to back aggressive European expansion plans.

[edit] Financial difficulties

[edit] 1992 bankruptcy

Although Tillinghast continued a golden era for TWA, he ignored the trans-Pacific market and the dedicated air cargo market. He was accused of saying, "There's no money in the Pacific and there's no money in cargo. We're gonna' shrink this airline 'til it's profitable." These two oversights are said to be the undoing of TWA.

Airline deregulation hit TWA hard in the 1980s. TWA had badly neglected domestic U.S. expansion at a time when the newly deregulated domestic market was growing at an exponential rate. TWA's holding company, Trans World Corporation, spun off the airline. But the airline became starved for capital after having been spun off. The airline briefly considered selling itself to corporate raider Frank Lorenzo in the 1980s, but ended up selling to corporate raider Carl Icahn in 1985. Under Icahn's direction, many of its most profitable assets were sold to competitors, much to the detriment of TWA. Icahn also moved the company's headquarters from New York City to his hometown Mt. Kisco, New York. Icahn was eventually ousted in 1993, though not before the airline was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1992. Icahn emerged unscathed. TWA moved its headquarters from Mt. Kisco to the former headquarters building of McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis soon after Icahn left.

[edit] 1995 bankruptcy

When Carl Icahn left in 1993, he arranged to have TWA give Karabu Corp., an entity he controlled, the rights to buy TWA tickets at 45 percent off published fares through September 2003. This was named "The Karabu deal".^[3] The ticket program agreement, which began on June 14, 1995, excluded tickets for travel which originated or terminated in St. Louis, Missouri. Tickets were subject to TWA's normal seat assignment and boarding pass rules and regulations, were non-assignable to any other carrier and were non-endorsable. No commissions were paid to Karabu by TWA for tickets sold under the ticket program agreement.

By agreement dated August 14, 1995, Lowestfare.com LLC, a Karabu wholly owned operating subsidiary, was joined as a party to the ticket program agreement. Pursuant to the ticket program agreement, Lowestfare.com LLC could purchase an unlimited number of system tickets. System tickets are tickets for all applicable classes of service which were purchased by Karabu from TWA at a 45 percent discount from TWA's published fare. In addition to system tickets, Lowestfare.com LLC could also purchase domestic consolidator tickets, which are tickets issued at bulk fare rates and were limited to specified origin/destination city markets and did not permit the holder to modify or refund a purchased ticket. Karabu's purchase of domestic consolidator tickets was subject to a cap of $70 million per year based on the full retail price of the tickets.

Hence, on most TWA flights, Karabu could buy and then sell a sizable portion of the available seats, leaving TWA to pay for its operating cost with the revenue accrued through the sale of any remaining ticket sales. In other words, TWA was flying passengers who were not paying them, but someone else. This deal left the company powerless. If TWA wanted to increase revenue on busy routes by putting a large plane into service, Karabu could only claim more seats. It is estimated TWA was losing around $150 million a year in revenue with this deal.

In trying to ameliorate the Karabu deal, TWA went in and out of bankruptcy in 1995.

[edit] TWA Flight 800

Main article: TWA Flight 800

On July 17, 1996, TWA Flight 800 exploded over the Atlantic near Long Island, killing all aboard. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the most likely cause of the disaster was a center fuel tank explosion sparked by exposed wiring. The cause is debated but the media focused heavily on the fact that TWA's airline fleet was among the oldest in service.

[edit] Short turn around

By 1998, TWA had reorganized as a primarily domestic carrier, with routes centered around hubs at St. Louis and New York. Partly in response to TWA Flight 800 and the age of its fleet, TWA announced a major fleet renewal, ordering 125 new aircraft. TWA paid for naming rights for the new Trans World Dome, home of the St. Louis Rams in its corporate hometown.

TWA's fleet renewal program included adding newer and smaller, more fuel efficient longer-range aircraft such as the Boeing 757 and 767 and short-range aircraft such as the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 and Boeing 717. Aircraft such as the Boeing 727 and 747, along with the Lockheed L-1011 and older DC-9s, some from Ozark and the 1960s, were retired. TWA also became one of the early customers for the small Airbus A318 through the ILFC. TWA, had it continued operating through 2003, would have been the first U.S. carrier to fly the type.

A code-share agreement with America West Airlines was started, with long-term plans for a merger considered. However the 1995 Karabu ticketing deal with Icahn proved to be an obstacle.

The routes that TWA flew were also changed. Several international destinations were dropped or changed, and the focus of the airline became domestic routes through its St. Louis hub and smaller New York (JFK) and San Juan hubs. Domestically, the carrier improved services with redesigned aircraft and new services, including "Pay in Coach, Fly in First", where passengers could be upgraded to first class from coach when flying through St. Louis. Internationally, services were cut. European destinations eventually were limited to London, Paris, Lisbon, and Milan, and in the Middle East, to Cairo, Riyadh, and Tel Aviv.

[edit] 2001 bankruptcy and acquisition by American Airlines

Financial problems began to resurface shortly afterward, and TWA's airline assets were acquired by American Airlines in April of 2001. As part of the deal, TWA declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy (for the third time) the day after it agreed to the purchase. The terms of the deal was a $500 million payment however since American assumed TWA's liabilities the deal was estimated to have cost American $2 billion.^[4] American did not claim the naming rights for the Rams home, which eventually became the Edward Jones Dome, named after the financial services company with the same name.

Trans World Airlines flew its last flight on December 1, 2001. The ceremonial last flight was Flight 220 from Kansas City, Missouri, to St. Louis, with CEO Captain William Compton at the controls. However, the final flight before TWA officially became part of American Airlines was completed between St. Louis and Las Vegas, Nevada, also on December 1, 2001. At 10:00 p.m. CST on that date, employees began removing all TWA signs and placards from airports around the country, replacing them with American Airlines signs. At midnight, all TWA flights officially became listed as American Airlines flights. Some aircraft carried hybrid American/TWA livery during the transition, with American's tricolor stripe on the fuselage and TWA's name on the tail. Signage still bears the TWA logo in portions of Concourse D at Lambert St. Louis International Airport. One lighted TWA sign still exists (as of 2006) on the runway side of Saarinen's New York JFK terminal. According to Dave Barger, COO of JetBlue Airways, JetBlue intends to retain the lit TWA sign on the Saarinen terminal after the renovation of Terminal 5.

TWA's St. Louis hub suffered after the merger due to its proximity to American's larger hub at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. As a result, American initially replaced TWA's St. Louis mainline hub with regional jet service (going from over 800 operations a day to fewer than 300) and downsized TWA's maintenance base in Kansas City. (St. Louis, as of January 2007, is American's fourth main hub.) Furloughs and layoffs have left less than 1,500 of 24,000 TWA employees with American Airlines jobs. Although American Airlines acquired over 200 aircraft from TWA (MD80s, 717s, 757s, and 767s), many analysts believe the TWA assets were not worth the additional debt inherited from TWA — however American did eliminate one of its prime competitors.

[edit] Terrorist target

From 1969 to 1986 five TWA airliners were terrorist targets for Palestinian guerilla groups, because of the fact that the airline had a strong European presence, represented the United States of America, and flew to Israel.

• In 1969 TWA Flight 840 from Rome to Athens was hijacked to Damascus. Nobody was injured and its nose was blown up (although replaced and the plane returned to service).
• In 1970 TWA Flight 741 was hijacked after taking off from Frankfurt am Main, Germany, to New York. It was taken to Dawson's Field in Jordan with two other hijacked aircraft. All three aircraft were empty of passengers and crew before being destroyed. A fourth aircraft that landed in Cairo, Egypt suffered a similar fate.
• In 1974 TWA Flight 841 from Tel Aviv to New York crashed shortly after takeoff from Athens after a bomb believed to have been in the cargo hold exploded, killing all 88 onboard.
• In 1985 TWA Flight 847 from Athens to Rome was hijacked first to Beirut, then to Algiers, back to Beirut, back to Algiers, and finally back to Beirut — with some of its fuel being paid for by the Shell credit card of flight attendant Uli Derickson.
• In 1986 TWA Flight 840 was again attacked with an onboard bomb, ejecting four Americans to their deaths.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Internet Archive of Trans World Airlines' website
• TWAlive
• Fly TWA Historical Site