C. Edward Acker is an American businessman who served as CEO of Braniff Airways, Air Florida, and Pan American World Airways. He is currently a principal at Intrepid Equity Group.[1]
Acker was born in Dallas, Texas.[1] He skipped second and eighth grades, and graduated from Southern Methodist University, after which he went to work as a financial analyst in Dallas.[2] He became Chief Financial Officer of the Greatamerica Corporation and led Greatamerica's takeover of Braniff Airways in 1964.[1]
As head of Braniff, Acker negotiated with Pan Am CEO Juan Trippe to purchase routes to the west coast of South America, and introduced a hub and spoke routing system in order to feed Braniff's Boeing 747 flight between Dallas and Honolulu.[2] He left Braniff in 1975 in the midst of government investigations relating to alleged illegal competition with Southwest Airlines and involvement in the Watergate scandal.[2]
Shortly thereafter, Acker led a group of investors who purchased a controlling interest in Air Florida, a low-cost carrier which reminded Acker of his competition with Southwest in Texas. After airline deregulation in 1978, Acker led the rapid expansion of Air Florida to become a nationwide and international LCC, which quickened in the early 1980s amid problems at its main East Coast competitors, Pan Am and Eastern Air Lines. However, Air Florida quickly became bankrupt after the crash of Air Florida Flight 90 in 1982.[2]
Later in 1982, Acker was appointed chairman and CEO of Pan Am, where he quickly moved to expand the airline's route network after several years of contraction, and to lower the airline's ticket prices in order to compete with low-cost competitors such as Laker Airways. The airline temporarily made up for its lower revenue and higher operating costs by obtaining wage concessions from labor groups, but this eventually led to labor tensions culminating in a 1985 strike which crippled the airline. Acker kept the airline alive only by selling its transpacific routes to United Airlines for $750 million.[2] He left Pan Am in 1988.[3]
Acker later advised on the founding of Atlantic Coast Airlines.[1]