A fallen legend of the golden age of air travel, Pan Am may soon take to the skies again thanks to the brand’s current owners, who have begun the certification process with the FAA. The original company shut down in 1991, after deregulation in the industry and changing economics brought the airline low. The famous blue meatball logo did fly again in the following decades under a succession of new companies, but each attempt eventually failed. The current owner, appropriately called Pan Am Global Holdings, believes it can break the curse and return the white and blue livery to glory.
As Aviation Week lays out in its report, the plan is to set up headquarters in Miami if it can get certification. Notably, the intention is to fly planes from Airbus, not Boeing, the American manufacturer long associated with the Pan American World Airways brand (though it did fly both). Pan Am flew the very first Boeing 707 in 1958, introducing America to the Jet Age; it later was a major early client of the 747 jumbo jet. If the company comes back flying only European planes, that would be a symbolic blow to the still-recovering Boeing.
Pan Am-branded everything
The new company appears to be serious, because 2025 has seen the most activity from that brand in a long time. This summer, it chartered some commemorative flights retracing some of Pan Am’s most famous trips, using a Boeing 757 in Pan Am livery. Then, just this month, a flurry of announcements fell out of the sky: Holland America will start sailing Pan Am-branded cruise lines, Pan Am-branded hotels will bring a “retro, mid-century design” to Los Angeles and Europe, and SafariScapes will run a Pan Am-branded safari through Africa using a private jet.
Not enough brand integration for you? Don’t worry, there’s more. Timex has a series of Pan Am watches now (none of which have unfortunate names, luckily). According to the main Pan Am site, lounges and shops are coming soon, too. Clearly, there’s a big effort here to leverage nostalgia into lots of other products.
But at the end of the day, Pan Am should be an airline that flies passengers to places. That is the goal here, and it would be nice to see an old piece of Americana refurbished and restored. Still, the real question is whether the new airline will have the same level of style and luxury the old carrier had. First-rate food on a plane? Plush seats? An actually nice interior? Take me back, please.
