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Like the other major airlines of the United States, TWA traces its history
back to the airmail delivery companies of the 1920s. Most of these
companies made their money delivering mail, and in fact, usually incurred
losses when carrying passengers. One company that attempted to break into
the passenger market was Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT), formed on
May 16, 1928, by a conglomerate of high-powered business interests under
Clement M. Keys, a Canadian-born businessman who had begun his career
working for The Wall Street Journal. Keys decided to offer a
coast-to-coast service for passengers that would combine both air and rail
travel. Passengers taking TAT would take a two-day journey across the
country, riding Pullman railway sleepers at night and flying Ford
Trimotors during the day. Although Keys enlisted the help of famous
aviator Charles Lindbergh to draw attention to his plan, TAT eventually
lost money with its coast-to-coast service.
During this time, Postmaster General Walter Folger Brown was handing out
mail contracts to airlines for specific routes. He believed that two
airlines should not operate over the same route, especially if both were
receiving government mail payments. Brown suggested that TAT combine its
services with another airline, Western Air Express, formed in July 1925.
The two companies merged on July 24, 1930, to form the new
Transcontinental and Western Air, Inc. (TWA). The new airline received its
first mail contract immediately and began flying coast-to-coast flights on
October 25, 1930, with an overnight stop at Kansas City.As with the other “Big Four” airlines (American, United, and Eastern) that dominated the early years of U.S. airline industry, the history of TWA was associated with a number of famous personalities. William John Frye, a former Hollywood stunt flier and TWA's first director of operations, was instrumental in determining the specifications of the Douglas DC-1 and DC-2 aircraft, the first in a series of aircraft that would revolutionize commercial aviation. In 1934, at the young age of 30, Frye became president of TWA. A licensed pilot, he made sure that TWA was at the forefront of modern technological advances, piloting the single DC-1 that Douglas built. In 1938, for example, he put in an order for the new 33-passenger Boeing 307 Stratoliner, the first commercial plane with a pressurized passenger cabin. He convinced a quirky millionaire named Howard Hughes to finance this purchase. Hughes became the principal stockholder of TWA in April 1939. Like other national airlines, TWA used its planes in support of the U.S. military during World War II. After the war, TWA's most prized target was the transcontinental route, a route that American Airlines, TWA, and United battled over for a decade. Of these airlines, TWA was the most aggressive in its business strategy. The airline put the new and modern Lockheed Constellation into service from New York to Los Angeles on March 1, 1946. Although United also introduced transcontinental service on the same day with its DC-4 aircraft, TWA came out the winner since the Constellation was much superior to the DC-4. In 1950, the airline retained its old acronym, but officially changed its name to Trans World Airlines. 
As the major airlines continued to compete over various routes through the
1940s, TWA gained a reputation for banking its future on the most advanced
aircraft available. For example, as United and American began using the
DC-6 aircraft, TWA responded by introducing the Lockheed L.1049 Super
Constellation on September 10, 1952. The new aircraft had a 35 percent
greater passenger carrying capacity than its predecessor. TWA was the
first airline to inaugurate regularly scheduled nonstop transcontinental
service between Los Angeles and New York on October 19, 1953. TWA
also entered the international market. At the end of World War II, the
Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), the organization that distributed routes
for U.S. airlines, decided to allow other airlines to share in Pan
American's monopoly of international routes. TWA was one of the airlines
granted this right, with permission to fly to Europe and India. TWA began
regular New York-to-Paris service in February 1946. This route was later
extended to Cairo, Egypt. TWA battled hard with Pan American for various
international routes, but it initially failed to exploit its key advantage
of being able to connect international flights with domestic ones, a
handicap for Pan Am, which did not fly any domestic routes. TWA was also
late in introducing jet service internationally, preferring instead to
focus on domestic jet services. TWA's first regularly scheduled jet flight
took place on November 23, 1959—a New York-London-Frankfurt flight – a
year after its main rivals. It took several years for the airline to
regain its competitive advantage lost because of this delay. The
immediate postwar years were not good for TWA. The airline faced serious
mechanical problems with its fleet of Constellations. Its pilots also went
on strike. Perhaps TWA's most well publicized problems had to do with
Howard Hughes. His mysterious and eccentric manner, combined with his lack
of interest in corporate decision-making and ventures into other
activities, did not help TWA's fortunes. After a number of disagreements
over corporate policy, Hughes fired Frye in 1947. In fairness though,
Hughes did do much good for TWA. For example, he had sponsored the
development of the Lockheed Constellation, the first civil airliner to
challenge the domination of Douglas aircraft. He also managed to gain for
TWA the distinction of being the only airline with both transcontinental
and transatlantic routes. By
the late 1950s, however, Hughes had become such a recluse that one of
TWA's presidents never met the man even once during his tenure in office.
TWA was caught in a spiral of debt at the time, and it cost Hughes his
hold on the company. In 1961, after TWA filed a suit against Hughes, he
was forced to surrender absolute control of TWA. He sold his remaining
stock in the company by 1965.
TWA continued to remain a powerful player, both in the international and
national markets, through the 1960s and 1970s. In 1961, it became the
first airline to introduce in-flight movies. In 1967, it acquired the
entire chain of Hilton Hotels. In July 1969, TWA managed to do what no one
could have predicted a few years before: overtake Pan American as the
world's number one transatlantic airline. In February 1970, only one month
after Pan Am, TWA began flying the Boeing 747 jumbo jet on the New
York-to-Los Angeles route.
TWA's fortunes began to dim in the 1980s in the wake of deregulation of
the commercial aviation industry. TWA's management even briefly considered
selling to the infamous Frank Lorenzo, the man at the helm of Continental
Airlines who had gained a reputation for his hardheaded financial
dealings. In the end, in September 1985, TWA accepted a bid from another
corporate raider, Carl Icahn, who bought up most of the TWA stock. The
following year, the new TWA acquired Ozark Airlines.
Although TWA gained by the demise of Pan Am by acquiring its international
routes, the airline eventually filed for bankruptcy in January 1992 after
problems with increasing debt. It sold some of its key routes to other
airlines at the time. In January 1993, Icahn finally relinquished all
control over the company, which was now under the control of a management
committee appointed by employees, unions, and creditors. After several
reorganizations in the 1990s, TWA's financial outlook seemed to improve by
the end of the decade. In December 1998, as part of plans to expand its
routes and flights, it announced the order of 125 new aircraft, the
largest acquisition in the company's history.
Hopes for a new future were thwarted once again by financial problems and
bankruptcy. On April 9, 2001, TWA's 75-year existence as an independent
airline came to an end when American Airlines purchased TWA's assets. TWA
flew its last official flight on December 1, 2001, ending an era in
American commercial aviation. |
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