BERLIN, Germany ("I.G.S.")

After World War II, Germany was split into two zones, which later became West- and East-Germany, and Berlin was occupied by the Allies until reunification in 1990. During that period Germany was prohibited from operating air services from and to Berlin.

In the early post-war years, the Western Allies including U.S., Britain and France set up commercial air links to and from West-Berlin, linking it  to  West-Germany and the world beyond.

During the dramatic Berlin Airlift (“Berlin Blockade”)  from 1948 to 1949 American Overseas Airlines, which was taken over by Pan Am in 1950, was the only private carrier operating during that time.

Captain Jack O. Bennet was the first one flying a Douglas DC-4 loaded with potatoes, which started the Berlin Airlift, the first of 2.3 million tons of food, fuel and other supplies to Berlin.

The Berlin government credited him with making this first flight, on June 23, 1948. He was Pan Am's Chief pilot until 1974 when he retired. Even after his retirement, he was well know in Berlin and on German media - still presenting his Pan Am uniform - well up to the end of the 1990s as he kept living in Berlin. His son also flew for Pan Am's IGS base in Berlin.

In April 1954, Pan American World Airways formed the Internal German Service (I.G.S.) with a base of local crews in Berlin. Pan Am had some thousands of employees and a number of U.S. flight crews in Germany mainly in Berlin and Frankfurt. Starting with a fleet of DC-4's, then DC-6's (1956), and by the end of 1966, the IGS operated an all-jet fleet, operating with Boeing 727-100 and 200 until 1974 at Berlin's Tempelhof (THF) airport, then as first private carrier at Berlin's newly built Tegel (TXL) airport (including Pan Am Express) with ATR-42 TurboProps, Boeing 727-200, Airbus A-310 and A-300 until 1991.

On 3 October 1990 with Germany's reunification all restrictions to the former West Berlin airports under Allied status were lifted.

Lufthansa then started flights to Berlin on 28 October 1990, initially operating twelve daily pairs of flights on a limited number of routes, including Tegel to Cologne, to Frankfurt and as well as to London Gatwick  (LGW) in 1991. To enable the German carrier's Berlin operations, it purchased Pan Am's Internal German Services (IGS) division for US 150 million. This included Pan Am's IGS’ German facilities, equipment and traffic rights with its gates and slots at Berlin-Tegel. Lufthansa contracted up to seven of Pan Am's Tegel based Boeing 727-200 which were operated under Lufthansa flight numbers by Pan Am IGS cockpit and cabin crews with scheduled services to Munich, Nuremburg and Stuttgart until summer 1991.

Due to the urgent need for additional cockpit and cabin crews for its new Berlin services Lufthansa offered Pan Amers to work for them. Pan Am’s German based cabin crews and ground personal mainly accepted and started working for Lufthansa, but hardly Pan Am cockpit crews did. Pan Am cabin crews just got a short three week training and then started for the German carrier.

The result of this agreement was Pan Am's orderly “Good-Bye” from its IGS airsystem after starting it 1950 with about 70 million passengers within Germany until 1991.

Pan Am continued operating its daily non-stop JFK (New York) to Tegel flights (A-310) with New York based crews until Delta Air Lines assumed most of its remaining transatlantic scheduled services during 1991.

Pan Am’s well skilled personal in air and on ground became part of Lufthansa’s Berlin and later intra-European operations, some changed to long haul flights at the Frankfurt base.

Even though many quit their jobs with Lufthansa the next few years, there are still PanAmers working for Lufthansa  as Pursers or regular flight attendants still often recognized as ”Pan Amers” when even after many years they sometimes mix up their Pan Am evacuation commands during their “refreshment” trainings on Lufthansa mock-ups at its Frankfurt main training hub. Some of them strted as safety instructors for training new flight attendants at Frankfurt.

Pan Am Express, which was not included in Pan Am's IGS sale to Lufthansa, continued operating all of its German and international scheduled routes from Tegel as an independent legal entity until its acquisition by TWA in 1991. Following TWA's takeover of Pan Am Express, the former Pan Am Express Berlin operations were then closed.

Pan Am's Berlin base (IGS) operated until 1990 with more than 70 million passengers between West-Berlin and West-Germany on scheduled services. Berlin based crews operated also Pan Am charter flights over a period of decades to many European destinations like Antalya, Izmir, Dalaman, Mallorca, Heraklion, Canary Islands, and even beyond like Kuwait and many more.

Berlin based cockpit and cabin crews also substituted Pan Am's other European bases with crews like from London-Heathrow to Oslo, Norway, or from Zurich to Geneva, Switzerland, and Istanbul, Turkey, when there was a need ( also with "unexpected overnights").

Pan Am's IGS people were well experienced. Some were based with Pan Am in New York (JFK) before like e.g. Annelie Santucci or worked for other airlines before like for Aero America, Air Berlin USA or Singapur Airlines.

Air Berlin USA was a Berlin based U.S. charter carrier founded by the former Pan Am pilot Kim Lundgren in 1978. He started with a Boeing 737. After reunification of Germany Air Berlin USA was transformed into the German carrier Air Berlin and after merging with the German LTU became the second largest German and seventh largest European airline.

After 1990 some German based PanAmers started working for other airlines like for Air Berlin or Airline of the Americas in Florida which was also founded by a former Pan Am pilot in 1991 and later sold.

Even though many are still working for Lufthansa and other airlines like Delta Air Lines, United Airlines (e.g. in London) after Pan Am's IGS routes were sold to it in 1990, they still keep their Pan Am identity up to now and reunite at least twice a year in Berlin.

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LONDON (LHR), U.K.

Pan Am's London Heathrow base was its main European base for long haul flights over the Atlantic with connections to several European destinations. Infact there was no other Non-European airline with more European destinations than Pan Am also concerning inner-European flights. Most flights continued from Pan Am's main European hubs London Heathrow, Frankfurt and Berlin (including New York based long haul A-310 flighs to and from Berlin, IGS and Pan Am Express).

Pan Am's New York based crews operated Pan Am flights to London Gatwick (LGW) after the London Heathrow (LHR) base was sold  where Pan Am's A-310 showed up until 1991.

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