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Pan Am stops flying

No, that's not an old headline, but rather a reference to small New Hampshire-based operation that had resurrected the old name and logo of the long-defunct U.S. aviation giant. The latest Pan Am flights –- which had been on 19-seat Jestream 3100 turboprops –- were suspended Friday. A message on the airline's website apologizes for the shutdown and advises people needing "assistance with a pending Customer Service issue" to e-mail or fax the company.

The Pan Am brand had been operated by the Boston-Maine Airways Corp. at the time of the shutdown, which came as the company's routes had fluctuated wildly over the past few years. Boston-Maine's Pan Am flights flew mostly to smaller secondary airports and –- at the time of its Friday shutdown –- had scheduled service only to Portsmouth, N.H.; Bedford, Mass.; and Trenton, N.J. Other destinations had been added and dropped quickly over the past few years, with some cities lasting only a few months before Pan Am pulled the plug. Previous destinations in the recent line-up included Baltimore/Washington International; Tunica, Miss.; Gary, Ind., and Elmira, N.Y.

The Times of Trenton writes Boston-Maine's decision to end its scheduled Pan Am service Friday comes after the "Department of Transportation filed an order on Feb. 1, proposing to revoke Boston- Maine's certificate to fly. The department cited the Portsmouth, N.H.-based company's poor financial conditions, a false financial report filed in 2002 and questions raised about its managers' competence." Boston-Maine spokeswoman Stacy Beck said declined to comment on the DOT filing, telling the Times only that "we're certainly disappointed with the order." In a Feb. 5 story written just after the DOT filing, the Portsmouth Herald News writes a good background story describing many of the problems at Boston-Maine.

Pan Am to bolt New Haven after just 5 months

Tiny carrier Pan Am is pulling out of New Haven, Conn., just five months after starting service there. The carrier's last flights there will be July 27, according to the airline's website. "It's disappointing, but I'm not surprised. Business was very slow," Tweed New Haven Regional Airport chief Lawrence DeNardis  says to the New Haven Register. "We took a chance with them in the first place." Though it has resurrected the legendary name and logo, Pan Am operates as part of Boston-Maine Airways and is not directly connected to its now-defunct famous namesake. Pan Am's schedule shows that it currently offers flights from New Haven to both Baltimore and Portsmouth, N.H., on 19-seat turboprop aircraft.

New Haven officials had hoped the flights to Baltimore and nearby Washington would be a draw. But DeNardis tells the Register that the small size of Pan Am's planes, frequent delays and ground transportation options once arriving at Baltimore were all factors that likely hurt Pan Am in New Haven. The news was not well received in New Haven, where the Register writes that local leaders had "hailed the addition of Pan Am as a major step forward in improving access to the region." New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr. voiced his unhappiness, saying "the management of the airport has to reverse continued declines in service available at Tweed if it is to justify the city's support." Pan Am's departure will leave US Airways as New Haven's sole commercial carrier.

Pan Am route changes leave casino town with no scheduled service

Airport officials in the Mississippi casino town of Tunica are trying to replace the city's lost airline service to Atlanta. That comes after Boston-Maine Airways, which flies under the old Pan Am name and logo, ended its three weekly Boeing 727 flights between Tunica and Atlanta, according to The Associated Press. The Memphis Commercial Appeal (free registration) writes that "when Boston-Maine lost its flights from Atlanta to Orlando and Puerto Rico, it was no longer feasible to fly to Tunica" as well. It was not clear from the Commercial Appeal story how Pan Am "lost" its other routes out of Atlanta. The Atlanta airport is not slot controlled, so Pan Am's ability to operate flights there should be under its own control.

Pan Am has been criticized by some customers and local officials over the past few years for announcing new routes only to abruptly cancel plans or quickly pull out of new markets. The latest airport getting a ramp-up in Pan Am service is the Elmira-Corning Regional Airport in western New York. From there, Pan Am has recently announced or added non-stop service to Orlando/Sanford, Baltimore, Trenton (N.J.), and Bedford (Mass.) in suburban Boston.

As for Tunica, losing Pan Am's three weekly flights is a blow. The Tunica airport had hoped Pan Am "would make the region an entertainment mecca," the Commercial Appeal writes. Tunica County administrator Clifton Johnson says traffic was beginning to pick up on the Pan Am flights, even drawing customers from nearby Memphis that were driving to Tunica to catch the Atlanta flight. "We are out there soliciting for other carriers," he said, "and not just to replace the Atlanta flight but to get scheduled service from a number of cities." (Related info: Pan Am route map)