The world of air travel, with its high fuel prices and frequent consolidations, is highly competitive. The history of airlines is crowded with the names of many companies that once dominated their field with pioneering techniques and technologies, only to succumb to the pressures of the marketplace. TWA is one such airline.
TWA stands for Trans World Airlines, which was once one of the largest United States domestic airlines and was considered the unofficial U.S. flag carrier behind Pan Am (see Reference 2).
The airline serviced many routes to Europe and the Middle East from its hub at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York (see Reference 2).
It was founded in 1930 from the forced merger of Transcontinental Air Transport and Western Air Express (see Reference 1).
Originally called Transcontinental and Western Air (T&WA), it officially became TWA in 1950. In that decade, it moved its offices from Kansas City, Mo., to New York City (see Reference 1).
TWA had its last flight on Dec. 1, 2001, from Kansas City to St. Louis with CEO Captain William Compton as the pilot (see Reference 1).
