Panair do Brasil

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Panair do Brasil
IATA
PB		 ICAO
PAB		 Callsign
Panair
Founded 1929 (as NYRBA do Brasil S.A.)
Hubs Santos Dumont Airport (SDU)
Galeão International Airport (GIG)
Guararapes International Airport (REC)
Fleet size 24 (at the time of the shutdown):

DC-8-33
Caravelle VI-R
DC-7C
L-049 Constellation
DC-3
PBY-5 Catalina
Destinations Around 70 locations in Brazil (43 of them in the Amazon region), plus several international cities:

Monrovia (ROB/GLRB)
Dakar (DKR/GOOY)
Lisbon (LIS/LPPT)
Madrid (MAD/LEMD)
London (LHR/EGLL)
Paris (ORY/LFPO)
Frankfurt (FRA/FRF/EDDF)
Düsseldorf (DUS/EDDL)
Zürich (ZRH/LSZH)
Milan (MXP/LIMC)
Rome (FC0/LIRF)
Istanbul (IST/LTBA)
Beirut (BEY/OLBA)
Cairo (CAI/HECA)
Parent company Pan American World Airways (1930-1961), Planejamento Guanabara (1961-1965)
Headquarters Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Key people Ralph O'Neil (founder)
Paulo de Oliveira Sampaio (CEO 1943-1955; 1961-1965)
Mário Wallace Simonsen (owner 1961-1965)
Celso da Rocha Miranda (owner 1961-86)
Rodolfo da Rocha Miranda (owner and CEO 1986-present)

Panair do Brasil was Brazil's flag airline and Latin America's largest carrier from the 1940s through the 1960s. It began operations in October 22nd, 1929, as NYRBA do Brasil S.A., a local subsidiary of NYRBA, Inc. (New York, Rio, and Buenos Aires Line). One year later, as the parent company was acquired by Pan American World Airways, this affiliate was renamed Panair do Brasil S.A. It ceased operations abruptly in February 10th 1965, when the Brazilian military government instated the year before suspended its routes and alloted them to Varig. The controversial decision to liquidate Panair so suddenly originated a long dispute in Court. Finally, in December, 1984, it was recognized that the airline operated within regular technical and financial parameters when shut down, and the government was sentenced to pay reparations to its former owners. The forced bankruptcy was suspended on May 5th, 1995, and the company now seeks indemnizations in Justice.

Contents

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • Panair do Brasil was the first non-US airline to acquire the Lockheed Constellation.
  • In the 1940s, the airline had the most extensive network of domestic routes in the world.
  • Panair seconded only UK's BOAC in placing orders for the de Havilland Comet, the world's first commercial jet airliner. The orders were later cancelled due to flaws on the plane's original design.
  • Just as Pan Am called their planes "Clippers", Panair do Brasil baptized its fleet with the names of "Bandeirantes".
  • Panair do Brasil DC-8s can be seen in a handful of movies, including French productions "La Peau Douce" (1964) and "Homme de Rio" (1964).
  • The abrupt shutdown of Panair was so traumatic to Brazilian society under dictatorship that celebrated musicians Fernando Brant and Milton Nascimento composed a song called "Nas asas da Panair" ("On the wings of Panair") as a tribute to the airline.
  • Part of Panair's logo is still visible at the company's former hangar at Santos Dumont Airport.
  • Former employees of Panair do Brasil, their families and friends attend an annual reunion on the week of October 22nd, the airline's birthday. This tradition has been religiously preserved since 1966 and there is a movement to include it in the Guinness World Records.
  • The airline has been the theme of a number of books. The most recent, "Pouso forçado" (2005), made it to the finalists of Prêmio Jabuti, Brazil's most important literature award.[1]
  • "Panair do Brasil", a documentary about the company, was exhibited at Festival do Rio (2007). It is due to be released in 2008.[2]

[edit] See also

[edit] Sources

  • Sasaki, Daniel L. (2005). Pouso Forçado: A história por trás da destruição da Panair do Brasil pelo regime militar. Record. 
  • Pereira, Aldo (1987). Breve História da Aviação Comercial Brasileira. Morrow. 
  • Abreu, Theophilo E. (2000). Nas asas da Panair. 
  • Medeiros, Jo Dutra et al. (1979). A história da Panair do Brasil: 50 anos. Editora Técnica da Aviação. 
  • Barbosa, Nair P. (1996). Nas asas da história: lembranças da Panair do Brasil. Agir. 
  • Davies, R.E.G. (1987). Pan Am: An Airline and Its Aircraft. Crown. ISBN 0517566397. 
  • Banning, Gene (2001). Airlines of Pan American since 1927. Paladwr. ISBN 1888962178. 
  • Wegg, John (2005). Caravelle: The complete story. Paladwr. 
  • O'Neill, Ralph (1973). A Dream of Eagles. San Francisco Book Company/Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-913374-02-4. 

[edit] References

  1. ^ Câmara Brasileira do Livro. Prêmio Jabuti. Relatório de votação. Accessed August 13, 2007.
  2. ^ Festival do Rio. [1]. Panair do Brasil. Accessed September 23, 2007.

[edit] External links

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Airlines of Brazil
Domestic
Int'l and Domestic
Cargo Only
Defunct/Grounded