Editing Pan Am (section)

====Fallout from 1973 oil crisis====
Pan Am had invested in a large fleet of Boeing 747s, expecting that air travel would continue to increase. It did not, as the introduction of many wide-bodies by Pan Am and its competitors coincided with an economic slowdown. Reduced air travel after the [[1973 oil crisis]] made the overcapacity problem worse. Pan Am was vulnerable, with its high [[overhead (business)|overhead]]s as a result of a large decentralized infrastructure. High fuel prices and its many older, less fuel-efficient [[narrow-body aircraft|narrow-bodied]] airplanes increased the airline's operating costs. Federal route awards to other airlines, such as the [[Transpacific Route Case]], further reduced the number of passengers Pan Am carried and its profit margins.<ref name=chasing/><ref name="PostWar_PanAm_51"/>

[[File:Pan Am 1970s flight attendant.jpg|thumb|A Pan Am flight attendant in 1970s uniform]]

On September 23, 1974, a group of Pan Am employees published an advertisement in ''[[The New York Times]]'' to register their disagreement over federal policies that they felt were harming the financial viability of their employer.{{sfn|Conrad|1999|p=1846}} The ad cited discrepancies in airport landing fees, such as Pan Am paying $4,200 ({{Inflation|US-GDP|4200|1974|fmt=eq|cursign=$}}) to land a plane in [[Sydney Airport|Sydney]], while the Australian carrier, [[Qantas]], paid only $178 to land a jet in Los Angeles. The ad also contended that the [[United States Postal Service]] was paying foreign airlines five times as much to carry US mail in comparison to Pan Am. Finally, the ad questioned why the [[Export-Import Bank of the United States]] loaned money to Japan, France, and Saudi Arabia at 6% interest while Pan Am paid 12%.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.panamair.org/History/aware.htm |title=Pan Am AWARE |publisher=Pan Am Air |access-date=June 1, 2009 |date=September 23, 1974 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090611065721/http://www.panamair.org/History/aware.htm |archive-date=June 11, 2009 }}</ref>

By 1976, Pan Am had racked up {{FXConvert|USA|364|m|year=1976|cursign=$|index=US-GDP|showdate=no}} of accumulated losses over a 10-year period, and its debts approached {{FXConvert|USA|1|b|year=1976|index=US-GDP|cursign=$|showdate=no}}. This threatened the airline with bankruptcy. Former [[American Airlines]] vice president of operations, William T. Seawell, who had replaced Najeeb Halaby as Pan Am president in 1972, began implementing a [[turnaround management|turnaround strategy]]: trimming the network by 25%, slashing the 40,000-strong workforce by 30%, cutting wages, introducing stringent economies and rescheduling debt, and reducing the size of the fleet. These measures, aided by the use of [[deferred tax|tax-loss credits]], enabled Pan Am to avert financial collapse and return to profitability in 1977.<ref name="PostWar_PanAm_51"/>