Pan Am travel tips

Consolidation is the enemy of competition. That’s an axiom of economic theory. And it’s a truth known to any kid who was forced to cut the price of his lemonade when the neighbor opened another lemonade stand across the street.

Airline rage? Passengers being duct-taped to their seat? Arrests after landing? That is the state of much of air travel today – and it makes a lot of people yearn for the Golden Age of Travel – when Pan Am ruled the skies. And people actually dressed up for the occasion.

New York City may be a global destination for business and tourism, but its track record of seeing airlines depart, at least when it comes to their headquarters, continued last week.

In the 1950s and '60s, "stewardesses were glamorous. They were beautiful. They were poised," says former Delta Air Lines flight attendant Casey Grant at the beginning of a new documentary film about the history of flight attendants.

Tens of millions of travelers fly across large oceans annually. It’s routine these days. Main routes, such as between New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport and Heathrow Airport in Hounslow to the west of London, see over a dozen nonstop flights a day in each direction. The massive airports that serve them have multiple terminals connected by their own rail systems to move both people and their luggage. Thousands of workers start shifts before dawn and stay on duty until the last airplane has safely departed. More than 76,000 people work at LHR as flyers know it.

American Airlines today announced its financial-performance numbers for the fourth quarter and the full year.