Pan Am and Delta

Can anyone tell me what Delta's involvement was with Pan Am during its
last days, and what Delta ended up with after the bankruptcy? Why did
Delta invest in Pan Am?

Can anyone tell me what Delta's involvement was with Pan Am during its
last days, and what Delta ended up with after the bankruptcy? Why did
Delta invest in Pan Am?

Delta wanted Airbusses quick; didn't want to wait for delivery...

Roughly (and others have more detail, I'm sure) IIRC DL got Boston/New
York-to-Europe (but not Heathrow), including Berlin-to-Moscow. I think they
also got rights to the Middle East and India but not sure they ever did
anything with them.

DL provided cash to PA--they didn't exactly buy equity in PA since they were
already bankrupt.

Delta had entered into an agreement to purchase the PanAm Shuttle in the
Northeast and to purchase most of their international routes. They were to
advance funds to PanAm to allow a reorganized PanAm to concentrate on South
America.

Unfortunately, Delta came to the conclusion that the Pan Am reorganization
plan was unworkable, which resulted in PanAm's shutting down in December,
1991.

Jeff
"Todd" wrote in message
om...
Can anyone tell me what Delta's involvement was with Pan Am during its
last days, and what Delta ended up with after the bankruptcy? Why did
Delta invest in Pan Am?

and don't forget how Robert Crandall (at the time, CEO of American
Airlines) got Delta into a bidding war for Pan Am...... of course,
Crandall NEVER wanted Pan Am......he just didn't want Delta to get it
for a song...........



Cassie (who KNOWS Delta paid waaaaaaay too much for PA......)

--lots of interesting side stories here.

1. The planes that Delta picked up from PA were not in good shape--A-310s
with every possible optional maintenance item deferred. Delta would have
been better off buying new planes.
2. Delta paid far too much for the European operations of PA.
3. The routes Delta picked up from PA were a mess--too many that PA had run
at a loss, too many routes to the wrong places at the wrong times.
4. The resulting losses-billions of dollars threatened to ruin Delta.
5. An agreement between Delta and PA to finance a PA Latin American
operation was never put into final contractual form and before it could be
completed, the economics turned bad in a hurry. PA would not have lasted six
months. Delta pulled the plug on throwing more good money after bad.
6. Ever since that time, former PA employees idled after the bankruptcy of
PA have blamed Delta for their plight.

Generally, there was no good business reason for Delta to have taken on any
of the PA routes/employees/planes. They should have let PA wither away and
then pick up whatever pieces they wanted or just start the routes with their
own planes.

There are some interesting parallels with the AA/TWA situation in the past
couple of years.