The Incredible Shrinking Airline

There were smiles and handshakes and promises of success aplenty last March when Braniff airlines resumed flying after being grounded in bankruptcy proceedings for more than l 1/2 years. But the Dallas-based carrier, which converted to a discount airline last September, has not regained its cruising speed. Last week, in an apparent act of desperation, Braniff said it would cut its fleet of 30 jetliners to ten and indicated that it may lay off as many as 1,200 of its 2,100 workers. The carrier will halt service on Nov. 5 to ten cities now on its route map, including Detroit, Houston and Philadelphia. Braniff also announced that its president, William Slattery, had left the airline to become head of Air Via, a new California carrier.

Braniff hopes that its retrenchment will stanch losses of about $80 million that have piled up since the airline returned to the skies. To raise additional cash, the company will sell leases on nine of its twelve gates at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport for $20.5 million to archrival American, and plans to lease ten of its jets to Northeastern International Airways. Braniff Chairman Jay Pritzker hopes that the slimmed-down carrier will now be able to fly out of trouble, but the cuts may be the beginning of the end for the new Braniff.