Following the Second World War, civil air traffic to and from Berlin was resumed on May 18, 1946. American Overseas Airlines operated forty-seat Douglas DC-4 planes between Frankfurt and Berlin-Tempelhof. During the Berlin Airlift which lasted from June 26, 1948, until June 12, 1949, AOA flew 28,546 passengers to and from Berlin. When Pan American World Airways took over American Overseas Airlines on September 25, 1950, a new era began for civil aviation to West Berlin. For almost forty years, Pan Am held the door to the world open for the West Berliners. This was all prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, after which Pan Am turned over all it routes to Berlin to Lufthansa. "Clipper Berlin", a Boeing 727-2D4, registration N361PA, was launched in 1979. Since 1931, when Pan Am called its first commercial four-engined seaplane "American Clipper", all the airline's planes with more than one engine carried the byname "Clipper". "Clipper Berlin" was one of Pan Am's first Boeing 727-200s to be used for flights to Berlin. Aircraft of this type were used for routes from West Berlin to large West German cities such as Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Nuremberg. The short to medium haul aircraft was an ideal plane for airports with short runways like Berlin-Tempelhof. The Pan Am planes carried this livery until 1985.
