"Colors Are Fun"

On Braniff International planes, women passengers have a particular problem: trying to pick clothes whose colors won't clash with the vivid hues of Braniff. Since last fall, in a major departure from the traditional white or silver commercial airlines, Braniff has been painting its jets any of seven assorted colors: lemon, beige, ocher, turquoise, orange, light and dark blue. Aircraft interiors are a kaleidoscope of orange, yellow, blue, brown, grey, red and green. Braniff hostesses wear uniforms that include lime topcoats, pink and yellow or pink and blue shift dresses and hyacinth culottes, all styled by Italian Couturier Emilio Pucci.

Rash of Jokes. Inevitably, the hostesses have become known among Bonded birdmen as Pucci Galores. And the multicolor fleet has raised a rash of jokes, such as the one about the airport controlman who radioed a Braniff pilot: "O.K., dearie, take off."

The last laugh, however, seems to belong to Braniff President Harding Lawrence, 45, who took over the airline a year ago last week and is responsible for the color splash. Braniff is getting more attention than other airlines, and operating statistics show it. Passengers increased 18% last year to 3,370,000; revenues also rose 18%, to $129 million, and earnings were up 58% to $9,400,000. Within the year, Braniff stock rose from $25 to $125, and stockholders last week happily approved a two for one split.

Lawrence, who came to Braniff from Continental Airlines, turned to the color brush as a quick way to paint over a dowdy image. Between 1945 and 1964, Braniff had slipped from fifth to ninth place among U.S. trunk airlines, was notorious for late flights, sloppy service and shoddy equipment. Its routes included everything from long flights to Buenos Aires to costly Texas puddle jumps, but the airline had not won a new route for ten years and was barely making money. "Flying had become a crawling bore," says Lawrence today. "But flying should be fun--and colors are fun." When Jack Tinker & Partners, the ad agency that Lawrence hired while he was increasing his advertising budget from $2,500,000 to $6,500,000, suggested colored airplanes, Lawrence leaped at the idea.

Nights & Days. Much more than spray guns went into Lawrence's new-look campaign. Braniff was the first U.S. airline to put into operation the relatively small short-run jet aircraft --in Braniff's case the BAC One-Eleven --providing places like Sioux Falls, S. Dak., with commercial jet service for the first time. Needing only a 48% passenger load for Braniff to break even, the 63-seat BAG One-Eleven has averaged 61.1%. In addition, Lawrence put Braniff's four-engine Boeing jets on a new schedule of daytime flying and nighttime maintenance. As a result, they now fly 11 1/2 hours daily instead of eight, and Braniff's profit sheets show the difference.

Braniff recently ordered 17 more Boeings. Some are for international service, for which Latin American routes have been found by buying out competing Panagra for $30 million. Last week Braniff announced five new nonstop flights weekly from New York to Panama City, Bogota and Lima. To keep his airline growing, Lawrence has put in a strong bid for the franchise from Southwestern cities to Seattle and Portland, Ore., the last major domestic route that the Civil Aeronautics Board has left to give out. Lawrence would also like to extend Braniff's South American service to Australia, Indonesia and Singapore, complete a circle with a Japan-U.S. flight. In expectation of such a service, he has already put in an order for eventual U.S. supersonic transport planes, may soon give a duplicate order for the British-French Concorde SST. Planemakers can hardly wait to hear what color Lawrence wants them painted.

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