3 days ago
Pan Am returns to JFK Airport with flight commemorating Southern and Northern Trans-Atlantic routes
Pan Am left an incredible mark on aviation history, and on Tuesday there was a rare opportunity for history to repeat itself.
For more than 60 years, Pan American World Airways, also known as Pan Am, took its passengers to new limits. On Tuesday, there was a commemorative flight out of John F. Kennedy International Airport that paid tribute to one of the world's great airlines.
Complete with Pan Am logos, the private charter jet took off on a 12-day journey, tracing the legendary Southern and Northern Trans-Atlantic routes. Passengers will be making stops in Bermuda and throughout Europe.
With everything included, such as 5-star hotels, the nostalgic trip costs $60,000 per person.
Organizers are also now putting together another trip that will be 21 days, called "Tracing the Trans-Pacific," which will cost $95,000 per person.
Flight attendants mark the different eras with what they wear
Officials are making the experience as immersive as possible. The entire aircraft is configured with all business class lie-flat seating, and flight attendants are dressed in replicas of the original Pan Am uniforms.
"It's such an honor and a privilege to be stepping into this uniform," flight attendant Anna Maria Aevarsdottir said. "We hope we can embrace the grace that they showed America."
Each of the flight attendants is representing a different time frame.
"I am wearing the galaxy gold and my colleagues are wearing the Super Jet Blue," Aevarsdottir said.
The uniforms are something Anita Mathewson knows all about. She was once a flight attendant for Pan Am. She was on hand Tuesday to relive those glory days, but this time as a passenger with her two daughters.
"It was a wonderful time in my life. Pan Am was beautiful," said Mathewson, of Norfolk, Connecticut.
"Pan Am was about the airline, but it was more about the people. It was the people and the experiences," added Linda Freire, chair of the Pan Am Museum.
The trip is a full-circle moment for one family
One of the many pilots behind Pan Am's rise to fame was the father of Sheryl Slyter and Louise Koch.
"When we were kids, he always brought back stuff from different countries that he visited," Koch said.
Now, it's their turn to see those same places their dad flew thousands to and from, since they're passengers on the first commemorative Pan Am jet.
"Knowing he was with the flying boats and all the places we are going, that he flew into," Slyter said.
