Former U.S. airline. It was founded in 1927 by former World War I pilot Juan Trippe, who secured a contract to fly mail between Key West, Fla., and Havana. In 1929 Pan Am established passenger service to the Caribbean and Central America.
It inaugurated the first transpacific flights (San Francisco to Manila) in 1936, the first transatlantic flights (New York City to Lisbon) in 1939, and the first round-the-world flights in 1947, and it pioneered commercial jet travel in the 1950s. Its business declined in the 1960s and '70s, and its acquisition of National Airlines in 1980 failed to improve its position. In 1988 a bomb planted aboard a Pan Am 747 caused the airliner to crash near Lockerbie, Scot., killing 270 people. Despite selling its Asian and South Pacific routes to United Airlines and its transatlantic, European, and Middle Eastern routes to Delta Air Lines, it was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1991. In the late 1990s another group bought the rights to the Pan Am name and began operating flights as Pan American Airways.
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