Pan American Airways, encircling South America
In 1933, Pan American Airways presented a broad network linking Miami, the Caribbean, Central America, northern South America, Brazil, the southern cone, the Pacific coast and the return through Mexico.
The brochure sold a modern promise: trips once impossible within normal holidays became accessible through flying clipper ships, weather radio and continental organization.
Pan Am builds its great South American network.
Turn the Caribbean and South America into a commercial circuit.
A 1930s airliner gives the right tone.
Very large network, best flown by major arcs.
Understanding the flight
Pan Am is not only selling a route. It sells a change of scale: holidays, business and mail take on continental dimensions.
The plan should be read as a commercial loop around the Americas, with several gateways rather than a simple point-to-point trip.
Before departure
- Split the network into Caribbean, Atlantic coast, southern cone, Andes and Central American return.
- Prepare tropical weather and fuel, especially between islands and isolated coasts.
- Keep slow airliners to preserve the 1930s network feeling.
- Separate Atlantic and Pacific arcs into different sessions if needed.
Suggested route
Caribbean and gateways to South America
Nassau, Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Barranquilla, Puerto Rico, Antigua, Saint Lucia and Venezuela open the network.
MYNN → MUSL → MUCU → MTPP → MDSD → MDLR → SKBQ → PR34 → TAPA → TLPC → SVMI
Trinidad, Guianas and Brazil
Trinidad, Georgetown, Paramaribo, Cayenne, Belém, São Luís, Recife, Salvador, Rio and Porto Alegre draw the Atlantic face.
SVMI → TTPP → SYCJ → SMZO → SOCA → SBBE → SBSL → SBRF → SBSV → SBGL → SBPA
Southern cone and Pacific
Rio Grande, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Chile, Antofagasta, Arica, Tacna, Arequipa and Lima move the route to the Pacific.
SBPA → SBRG → SUMU → SAEZ → SCTI → SCFA → SCAR → SPTN → SPQU → SPIM
Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Panama
Trujillo, Chiclayo, Piura, Guayaquil, Salinas, Buenaventura, Medellín, Panama and David close the Andean and Central American arc.
SPIM → SPRU → SPHI → SPUR → SEGU → SESA → SKBU → SKMD → MPTO → MPDA
Central America, Mexico and Caribbean return
Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Tapachula, Mexico City, Tampico, Brownsville, Veracruz, Mérida, Cozumel, Belize, Guatemala, Jamaica and Havana close the map.
MPDA → MROC → MNMG → MSLP → MGGT → MMTP → MMMX → MMTM → KBRO → MMVR → MMMD → MMCZ → MZBZ → MGPB → MKJP → MUHA
Experience tips
The network is huge. Flying it by geographic arcs makes it much more enjoyable.
Keep the Pan Am logic: comfort, weather, radio and organization, not just tropical exoticism.
Copyright Michel Lagneau 2013