AIRLINES: Pan Am's Case for Subsidy

The long, stormy letdown of Pan American World Airways has been as visible as a thunderhead, and just as ominous. Pressed by soaring fuel costs and shrinking transatlantic passenger loads, Pan Am lost $18.4 million last year, despite a stringent cost-cutting program imposed by Chairman William T. Seawell: 8,000 of 40,000 employees have been fired. By July of this year, matters were even worse. Losses were running in the $30 million range, and Pan Am and TWA, a line with even greater first-half losses but lesser troubles overall, had appealed to the...

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