On A Wing And a Dare

In the unfriendly skies of airline competition, Braniff has been buffeted severely but refuses to stay grounded for long. The Dallas-based carrier endured a bout with bankruptcy in 1981-82, and has changed hands three times since then. Last week Braniff chairman William McGee announced an ambitious plan to triple the size of the airline's fleet and join the ranks of major U.S. carriers.

While several troubled rivals are selling planes and cutting service, McGee said his company has ordered 50 midsize Airbus A320 jetliners and has taken options to acquire 50 more (total cost: $3.5 billion). Braniff chose the European-built planes partly because it wants its jets in a hurry. Half the planes were originally intended for cash-strapped Pan Am, which agreed to turn over its allotment to Braniff.

The Texas airline will deploy many of the jets at its two principal hub cities: Kansas City and Orlando. The carrier last year bought 16 Kansas City airport gates from ailing Eastern Airlines. Braniff also aims to move into other airports neglected by the major carriers, but is keeping mum about which ones.

Though Braniff lost $11.4 million for the nine months ending Oct. 31, industry analysts think it can become profitable. But the true ambitions of its owners, an investment group that bought Braniff last June for $105 | million, remain a subject of speculation. The management, says Kevin Murphy, who follows the industry for the Morgan Stanley investment firm, wants "to get this thing to be a viable enterprise and sell it to a major airline. They are not in it for the long run." But at least for the short term, the Braniff logo is going to become a familiar sight on U.S. runways.