Word: braniffs
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...Just before Christmas, Jimmy Carter exercised that prerogative in a fashion that caused his own chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board briefly to consider resigning, and that is now leading Pan American World Airways to scream about undue political influence. Reason: it lost a juicy route to Dallas-based Braniff Airways...
...Fort Worth to London. Its reason: Pan Am, which only in the past two years has begun to earn a profit after years of heavy losses that at one point drove it to the brink of bankruptcy, could not stand any more competition. Carter gave the route instead to Braniff, which has been prospering mightily; the President cited "foreign policy considerations" that, as is his privilege, he did not bother to explain...
...Braniff award brought matters to a real boil. The airline had been fined for making illegal contributions to Richard Nixon's re-election campaign. Now the political wind has shifted from San Clemente to the South-and Braniff has influence there too. Virtually the entire Texas congressional delegation lobbied Carter. Says one airline lawyer: "They hit the White House like dive bombers from the Confederate air force...
...flight engineers charged last week that Carter had been subjected to pressure from Texas Governor Dolph Briscoe, "and possibly even from one high-ranking member of the Administration who is a former Braniff director." The reference was to Robert Strauss, who was Democratic National Chairman when Carter was nominated for President and is now Carter's chief trade negotiator. Pan Am asked the CAB either to stay the new route awards for 90 days or grant the routes only on a temporary basis. To no avail; last week the CAB staff was readying a final order for Carter...
...operating their Concordes. To break even, BA would have to keep each of its five Concordes in the air 7½ hours a day with 60% to 70% passenger loads this year. Right now the Concordes are logging about half that much flight time. BA now is negotiating with Braniff International to lease the plane for flights between Washington and Dallas-a final link in an "international oil route" to the Middle East. So concerned were Air France pilots about the Concorde's future that they voted to keep flying the plane this week even while grounding all other...