AEROVIAS BRANIFF

Aerovias Braniff

On April 4, 1945, Aerovias Braniff inaugurated nonstop Douglas DC-3 service from Mexico City to Ciudad Victoria, with continuing service to Nuevo Laredo. The new flight marked the first completion of a scheduled round trip by the new airline based in Mexico. 

In December 1943, Braniff Airways, Inc., cofounder Thomas Elmer Braniff formed Aerovias Braniff as a new Mexican carrier at the invitation of the Mexico Minister of Communications who was interested in another airline providing service within the country. Aerovias was an independent operation owned by Mr. Braniff, but received support and loaned staff from Braniff Airways. Service did not begin until 1945, but commenced a nearly forty-year, albeit tumultuous, relationship with the country. Mr. Braniff's hope was that if he established a reliable air service in Mexico, then the Civil Aeronautics Board might approve the merger of it into Braniff Airways, Inc., which would result in Braniff Airways assuming full ownership of Aerovias Braniff.

Major General Elmer E. Adler was named Vice President and General Manager of the new airline after his military duties were completed. The Major General received the Distinguished Service Medal for his dedicated work as Chief of Personnel and Training and for his service as Commanding General of the Technical Air Command from February 1943 until November 1945. The medal was presented to the Major General Adler at the American Embassy by U. S. Ambassador George S. Messersmith on March 26, 1946.

On April 3, 1945, Aerovias Braniff began a pre-inaugural flight that left from Dallas Love Field. The flight, piloted by Braniff Captain R. V. Carleton and Co-Pilot Nick Laurenzana, departed the Love Field Terminal using a wartime Douglas DC-3 twin-engine airliner. The aircraft reregistered as XA-DUJ, and dubbed Ciudad Victoria was painted with Aerovias Braniff titles. Dallas Civic leaders as well as Braniff President Tom Braniff and his wife Bess Thurman Braniff were on board for the pre-inaugural flight. Braniff investor and Board Member Fred Jones, an Oklahoma Ford dealer, was also on the flight with his wife.

The flight left Love Field and headed to Austin, Texas, where Governor of Texas John Lee Smith and his wife boarded the flight, which was greeted by a local group of Austin notables upon its arrival. The celebration continued with stops in San Antonio, Laredo, Nuevo Laredo, Ciudad Victoria, and finally the final destination of Mexico City, where the flight was again welcomed by local dignitaries and thousands of Mexican citizens who swarmed around the arriving airliner to welcome its passengers.

General Gustavo Salinas, the Mexico Chief of Military Aviation, welcomed the first Aerovias Braniff airliner to Mexico City. Senora Enna Pena de Gonzalez, the wife of the Governor of Tamaulipas, officially christened the Aerovias Braniff Douglas DC-3 as Ciudad Victoria, a city located in Tamaulipas. At 7PM, the Minister of Communication, Pedro Martinez Tormel, announced the inauguration of Aerovias service in the name of His Excellency the President of the Mexican Republic. That evening a reception and dedication ceremony were held in the Mexican Capital.

The following day, on April 4, 1945, Aerovias Braniff operated its first scheduled operation, Flight 2, from Mexico City to Ciudad Victoria with continuing service to Nuevo Laredo. The first scheduled flight, a distance of only 555 miles, returned via the same routing to Mexico City. Another celebration was held that evening at the National Palace, hosted by Mexican President Manuel Avila Camacho.

The first Hostess at Aerovias Braniff was Estalla Gomez LLata of Mexico City. She hosted the pre-inaugural flight from Dallas Love Field to Mexico City. Ms. Llata had previously worked at the Braniff Airways City Ticket Office in Mexico City, but was called to Dallas for Hostess training for Aerovias. Ms. Leona Perrault, a Braniff Airways Hostess was loaned to Aerovias to train the carrier's Hostess corps.

In February 1945, the US Surplus War Property Administration allocated two Douglas C-53-DO Skytroopers or Douglas DC-3 aircraft to Aerovias Braniff. The carrier had asked for a total of eight Douglas airliners from the Surplus Administration and initially only received two aircraft but did gain two additional aircraft a short time later. The first aircraft, registered in Mexico as XA-DUJ, was delivered to the Braniff Airways Dallas Love Field base where it was converted to DC-3 passenger configuration.

The overhaul work was done quickly and efficiently. Aerovias President Tom Braniff noted that because of the war effort, factories were slow to get needed parts for the modifications to Braniff and a time of two to three months for completion of the work was to be expected. The second DC-3 was ready by the end of June 1945, for additional planned Aerovias service. Aerovias Braniff's fleet consisted of the following aircraft at the time that its operating permits were rescinded:

Douglas DC-3 C-53-DO registered Mexico as XA-DUJ March 24, 1945
Douglas DC-3 C-53-DO registered Mexico as XA-DUI June 17, 1945
Douglas DC-3 C-47DL registered Mexico as XA-GEF 1945
Douglas DC-3 C-47B-50-DK registered Mexico as XA-GEG 1946

Aerovias Braniff expanded service in Mexico on July 1, 1945, with inauguration of a route from Mexico City to Merida, with intermediate stops in Puebla and Vera Cruz. Additional service was sought from Mexico City to Monterrey, with continuing service to Nuevo Laredo. The Merida service was the first segment in planned flights to Havana, Cuba, and Miami, Florida. The Cuban Government had approved the new service and negotiations were underway for ground facilities.

Aerovias Braniff was initially given authority to operate over 7728 route miles that would have included service from the US Gateways of Miami and Los Angeles as well as south from Mexico City to Panama and Central America. However, this did not materialize as Braniff Airways, Inc., was awarded a 7719-mile route system from the US Mainland to Mexico and Central and South America, which created a competitive situation that was not amenable to the Mexican Government and Pan American Grace Airways.

The new South America route award created a situation where Braniff Airways would be competing with Pan American Grace Airways at multiple points. This basically resulted in Aerovias Braniff having its Mexican route authority revoked on October 26, 1946, as a result of the Mexican Government succumbing to political pressure applied by Pan Am, which owned 50 percent of Panagra, with W. R. Grace and Company owning the other half. This left only Pan American World Airways' Mexico subsidiary Compania Mexicana de Aviation as the only carrier serving the country. Braniff would continue to serve Mexico, but only via connecting airline services from US Mainland points such as San Antonio and Brownsville.

Aerovias Braniff's four DC-3's were impounded by the Mexico Minister of Communications and the airline was closed. However, Mr. Braniff continued to lobby the Mexican Government to reinstate his operating permits and in February 1947, the Minister of Communications released Aerovias Braniff's four DC-3 aircraft. Authority to begin limited charter service was granted in the interim, while the Mexican Government was reviewing the airline's application for new route certificates.

The first charter was flown from Mexico City to Acapulco, Mexico, and back to Mexico City. Aerovias Braniff was authorized to operate charters throughout Mexico during the application review process. The new route certifications were not approved and appeals were made only to be denied first by a lower court and then by the Supreme Court of Mexico in early July 1949. The high court ruled against the reinstatement of the certificates by a vote of 3 to 2.

On July 14, 1949, Thomas Elmer Braniff filed a claim against the Mexican Government with the United States State Department in the amount of $1,250,000.00 USD. Mr. Braniff charged that the Mexican Government's recension of his airline's operating certificates had destroyed his investment in the airline and amounted to Aerovias Braniff's property being taken without compensation. Another eleven years of legal wrangling would pass before an agreement was worked out between the United States and Braniff and the Mexican Government.

On November 9, 1960, Braniff finally began scheduled service to Mexico. The company inaugurated its new Minneapolis/St. Paul to Mexico City run with intermediate stops in Kansas City, Dallas and San Antonio using the airline's brand new Lockheed L-188 Jet Power Electra aircraft. On December 1, 1965, service to Acapulco would also begin.