In 1930 Paul and Thomas Braniff founded Braniff Airways, Inc. The two petitioned the US Postal Service for a Chicago-Dallas airmail route in 1935, making Braniff Airways the first company to hold that route, and allowing them to eventually grow into a major airline company. Braniff assisted in World War II, grew their passenger business, bought out other airline companies, grew their fleet, and expanded their routes across North, Central, and South America. In 1958, at the height of business, Braniff Airways built a new terminal and facilities at Dallas Love Field called the Braniff Operations and Maintenance Base, as well as built a new headquarters building at Exchange Park.

View this 1982 KXAS story for more history about Braniff Airways.

By 1982 the airline ceased operations because of the high cost of fuel and the increased competition from new airlines after the airline deregulation. This 1983 clip describes the work for Braniff and the Hyatt Corperation to come to a deal, extinguishing Braniff’s debts, and returning to operations under the Hyatt umbrella.

The Hyatt Braniff model failed by 1989. Additional attempts to resurrect the Braniff name in airlines were made over the years, but none were ultimately successful in bringing the airline back to life.

You can find additional Braniff related clips and scripts from the NBC 5/KXAS Archive on The Portal to Texas History.

You can also find photographs of the Braniff headquarters, Love Field location, and many celebrities departing from Braniff planes in the John Rogers and Georgette de Bruchard Collection.

Additionally, the UNT Oral History department has collected a series of oral history interviews related to Braniff Airways.