Pan Am (a/k/a Boston-Maine) Ceases Operations
 

It finally happened. Below is a link to the story in the USA Today.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/sky/2008/03/pan-am.html

Not surprising news as they have all kinds of problems.

Note that the cause of the shutdown was pending FAA certificate action due to poor finances....maybe mesa will be next? The Aloha lawsuit is right around the corner :)

Good...now let the Pan Am name rest in peace.

That's ashame, but i'm not gonna be surprised if the name kicks around somewhere else sooner than later.

I'm willing to bet 99% of the traveling public didn't know pan am was even still around in any way shape or form anyways.

One of the 727's is sitting on the AAR ramp in Oklahoma City.

Still looks good in the old Pan Am paint.

I was wondering where their 727s ended up. Maybe they will try and sell them.

i actually got an interview there about a month ago...it was not a happy place at all...the hangar and offices seemed to be right out of the 60s...the aircraft and maintenance facilities were awful and no one seemed to be in a good mood. after going up there for an interview they finally told me that they were only looking for street captains...which is fine with me...i just wanted to see the inside of a jetstream...:D

My father is a former 747 captain for the original company. I just spoke to him a little while ago and told him. He was always very critical of this version of Pan Am. He said that he felt bad for those who lost their jobs but happy as this will be the end of it. He always said this company was a huge insult to the original company and the name.

So there is no question: This company had absolutely no affiliations what-so-ever with Pan American World Airways 1927-1991. Mellon bought the name and the symbol for super cheap and slapped it on some of his airplanes. Then he did everything they could to steal PA's history and legacy as their own for legitimacy. This whole thing was sacrilegious and blasphemous. Good riddance to a union-busting, law-skirting, shady airline.

There is one in MIA as well.... looks great... reminds me when i was a little 5 yeard old kid... it was the first airplane i ever got into.. aww ok enough haha :D

I rode into BOS on a bus on Friday and was talking to a clipper connection guy in the seat behind me. I asked him what he thought the future looked like for the clipper fleet and he said not too bad, he was an FO with zero PIC turbine. I guess they are going the way of the Big Sky guys and hitting the streets, its too bad.

I'd like to hear more about incidents like this:

"[Pan Am] repeatedly discharged pilots because they were unwilling to fly in violation of FAA safety rules, repeatedly refused to comply with final and binding decisions of system boards of adjustment as required under the RLA and willfully violated environmental laws."

Wasn't Boston Maine the pilot group that replaced the Pan Am/Carnival pilots during a labor dispute. Does anyone have a confirmation on this or is this not true, thank you.

FF

I think that happened before Melon bought the company out of bankruptcy. I think the incident in question was during Pan Am II.

A friend of mine actually flew them when they were running the Sanford-San Juan service with 727s. He did it just for the heck of it since he lived near Orlando and decided to spend the weekend in Puerto Rico. He told me that the service was actually very good. He also told me that the flight was full both ways and was surprised when they stopped the service.

I saw one of them up in MHT not too long ago.


Let the name rest in peace.... finally.

The sad thing is, the name won't rest in peace. It will be painted on locomotives and train cars throughout the NE.

You guys b*tch about GoJet here... But never mention Boston-Maine an alter-ego, puesdo scab outfit 100 times worse than GoJet. Unlike GoJet/TSA those pilots were put out of work and had no chance to vote on that flying or retuen to work. ALPA blasted this operation for months because those pilots were non-union while the union pilots hit the street and ALPA was busted at PAN-AM(2) because of Boston Maine.

YES

http://www.alpa.org/DesktopModules/A...3&ModuleId=785

Release #04.041
September 23, 2004

ALPA Fights Guilford Transportation’s Union-Busting Actions at Pan Am

CONCORD, N.H.— The Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA) on Sept. 20 obtained a temporary restraining order in U.S. District Court, requiring Pan American Airways (Pan Am) and its controlling affiliate Guilford Transportation Industries (Guilford) to maintain the operations of Pan Am and its relationship with ALPA, in the face of management’s efforts to transfer both flying and aircraft from unionized Pan Am to its non-union subsidiary, Boston-Maine Airways (Boston-Maine).

This restraining order prohibits the Guilford defendants from closing or otherwise changing the operations of Pan Am while the court reviews a U.S. magistrate judge’s Sept. 17 Report and Recommendation. The magistrate judge had recommended that the district judge enjoin Guilford and its two airline affiliates from committing further serious violations of the Railway Labor Act (RLA), the legislation that governs labor relations at U.S.-based airlines and railroad companies.

ALPA requested this restraining order to ensure that the U.S. District Court would have the opportunity to implement the Magistrate Judge’s recommendations for an injunction after the Guilford defendants announced their intentions to shut down Pan Am permanently by the end of October 2004.

On Sept. 1, ALPA filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court in New Hampshire, asserting that the managements of Guilford, Pan Am, and Boston-Maine were engaged in an unlawful scheme to have non-union Boston-Maine take over all of Pan Am’s Boeing-727 flying.

"ALPA believes that the defendants have implemented this union-busting strategy to sidestep the provisions of the Pan Am-ALPA collective bargaining agreement and to unseat ALPA as the representative of Pan Am pilots," said ALPA President Capt. Duane E. Woerth.

U.S. Magistrate Judge James Muirhead agreed with ALPA’s position. He issued a 32-page Report and Recommendation on Sept. 17, concluding that the Guilford defendants violated the RLA’s status quo and the union interference provisions, and he recommended that an injunction be entered restoring the Pan Am pilots’ pay and working conditions and prohibiting the Guilford defendants from transferring aircraft or flying from Pan Am to Boston-Maine.

On Sept. 20, U.S. District Judge Joseph DiClerico issued an interim order directing Guilford and its two air carriers to maintain the status quo in their "relationship" with ALPA and the Pan Am pilots, and to otherwise maintain "operations" as they existed on Sept. 17, until the District Court can rule on Judge Muirhead’s findings and recommendations.

The Guilford defendants now have until Oct. 4 to file an objection to the Report and Recommendation with Judge DiClerico. ALPA has the option of filing a response to any objections they raise.

Founded in 1931, ALPA is the world’s largest pilot union, representing 64,000 pilots at 43 airlines in the United States and Canada. Visit the ALPA website at www.alpa.org.

# # #

ALPA Contact: John Perkinson, 703-481-4440 or [email protected]

I've seen some of those and it really looks ridiculous.

What about bigsky, weren't they an alter spun off by MAIR? aka mesaba?

When this union busting was going down I was a ramper for them. I got laid off along with the pilots. Though I was nonunion. They had judges in their back pocket too. They had some of the 727's named after these judges and Melon was definitly the cash cow. We used to have to clean out Citation when came up for a visit. A very dirty organization, glad I never flew for them.

Also too, most of their 727's were cut up and sold for scrap when they changed their name to Pan Am Systems. They where all X United and Air Jamaica birds. The pilots that flew them were great. They were old school too, wore the old white Pan Am hats. Pretty cool

I agree with all you said. Now I hope they will stop painting trains with the grand old logo.

http://www.guilfordrail.com/

Disgraceful.

As a former Capt. for the ALPA side of Pan Am who was fired Oct 31, 2004, I could not be happier to see them finally close the doors. BMA from day 1 was an alter-ego airline formed to bust ALPA. Period. They found a bunch of qualified B727 pilots, some former scabs from other battles, trained them and did proving runs with the Feds. Once all boxes were checked, we were on our way out the door. I was amazed there were scumbags willing to help BMA pull this off and accept $5000/mo salary as a B727 Capt. Funny how months later they were complaining about how bad things were there...DUH!!Now that the lights are turned off, time will tell where these guys will turn up.

Reading the DOT docket (7668), they are begging to keep the J31's flying and parting ways with large aircraft (for the time being). I hope the Feds wake up and finally close this place, pull the certificate and put this Mgmt team on the Lorenzo list of never again in aviation. One can only wish.

Screw. I shouldn't have clicked on that link. Now my blood pressure's up again.

Rememebr when they were doing east coast ops with the Airbus out of BOS? It must have been the late 90's. I think they were doing BOS-JFK and then some routes down to Florida.

I miss those 727's. At one point they were running the 727 out of ORH (west of BOS) down to Sanford FL. All those versions of course folded and then the shoddy King Air Ops started.

I'm suprised none of us hotel monkeys caught the USA Today reference from yesterday the 7th, in the "Across the USA" section, 6A:

Maine: Augusta- Some state lawmakers want Pan Am Railways to sell its lines in Maine because of complaints that it's failing to provide timely and consistent service to manufacturing customers. State Rep. Stacey Fitts said there is no evidence that the railroad has improved service since the Legislature first began prodding it to do so three years ago. David Fink, president of Pan Am Railways, said he was unaware of the complaints.

emphasis mine.

As I recall, Big Sky was an independent airline purchased by MAIR Holdings with the rumored intention of using them to whipsaw against Mesaba. Now MAIR is selling the assets and keeping the cash.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Sky_Airlines