Pan Am's New Chief

As administrator of the Federal Aviation Agency under President Kennedy, former Test Pilot Najeeb Halaby endeared himself to private flyers by hopping all over the nation for airport talkfests about their problems. His yen to be where the action is led him to fly to the scene of nearly every commercial air crash. One day he learned that sky divers might endanger air traffic. Characteristically, Halaby parachuted himself, pronounced diving great sport--then called for restrictions.

Last week Halaby's activist style propelled him into the boss's seat at Pan American World Airways, of which he has been president for the past 18 months. Chairman Harold Gray, 63, stepped down after only a year and a half as chief executive of the financially troubled airline, and announced that he planned to retire next year. Surface appearances to the contrary, the switch was something less than a managerial upheaval. Halaby, now 54, has been in line to take over ever since Pan Am Founder Juan Trippe lured him away from Washington four years ago.

Dallas-born Jeeb Halaby (his mother was English, his father Syrian) took a law degree at Yale and served as a Navy pilot in World War II, flying the first U.S. jet cross-country in 1944. After the war, he hopped from job to job with indifferent success. At Pan Am, however, his energy and judgment have earned him the respect of associates and the confidence of Founder Trippe.

Scrapping Flights. Halaby may need all his charm and brilliance to right Pan Am, which has just posted a record nine-month loss of $4,500,000, compared with earnings of $39,500,000 for the same period last year. On the lucrative North Atlantic run, globe-girdling Pan Am has been nosed out of first place by rival TWA. Pacific routes that once were Pan Am's alone are now aswarm with competitors. To cut its losses, Pan Am has scrapped 23 unprofitable flights in the Pacific and announced layoffs of 450 pilots and flight engineers. Said Halaby last week: "We have not reached the end of our economy campaign."

To snare more passengers, Pan Am will concentrate on service. "The hostess should think she is giving a party," says Halaby. Pan Am is also trying to acquire a domestic carrier to compete against TWA, which has both U.S. and international routes. Next year, Pan Am will become the first airline to put Boeing 747 jets into service, and the company counts on the 362-passenger jumbos to regain its financial health. To help fill all those seats, Pan Am can obviously use some of Halaby's zeal.

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