Newport Consultant Hired to Pilot Pan Am

Pan American World Airways on Monday hired David Banmiller, a longtime Newport Beach airline consultant and executive, as president and chief executive officer to continue Pan Am’s effort to resuscitate the once-grand carrier.

Banmiller replaces Martin Shugrue Jr., who headed the Miami-based airline for the last 14 months after acquiring the rights of the original carrier, which collapsed more than four years ago under a heavy debt load.

After emerging from bankruptcy under Shugrue’s leadership, Pan Am now offers 50 daily flights to 18 cities in the Northeast U.S. and Florida, the Bahamas and Caribbean.

Shugrue will become vice chairman. His successor, Banmiller, has worked in aviation for 30 years, most recently as a consultant. In 1985, he helped transform AirCal, a Newport Beach-based regional carrier, from a money-loser into a profitable line that was acquired a year later by American Airlines.

Banmiller became an American executive, then left in 1989 to become a consultant with Air/Lyon Inc. and Falcon Group Inc. in Newport Beach.

“David Banmiller’s proven skills and diverse management experience, especially his performance record at both small and large carriers, eminently qualifies him to direct Pan Am’s future course,” said Charles Cobb Jr., the board’s chairman.

Banmiller, who also will head the airline’s holding company, Pan Am Corp., could not be reached for comment.

Pan Am pioneered commercial aviation and once dominated international air travel. But in the 1980s, the financially strapped carrier began selling off prized Pacific routes, and later sold most of its European ones. The airline folded suddenly in 1991.

Pan Am’s stock rose 38 cents Monday to close at $3.50 a share in heavy trading on the American Stock Exchange. A total of 466,000 shares changed hands, about five times the average daily volume for the last three months.