View of a TWA plane landing at O'Hare Airport. (Photo by Co Rentmeester//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images). The location of this image is Chicago, IL United States. Copyright: Time & Life Pictures

Trans World Airlines (TWA ) was an American airline that existed from 1925 until it was bought out by and merged with American Airlines in 2001. It was a major domestic airline in the United States and the main U.S.-based competitor of Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) on intercontinental routes from 1946 until deregulation in the late 1970s. TWA had hubs in St. Louis and New York City (JFK) for much of its history, with focus cities in Kansas City , Los Angeles , and San Juan, Puerto Rico at times. In the 1980s it built up a hub in Atlanta , an operation which was reduced in the 1990s.
Flying to most major U.S. cities, TWA was one of the largest domestic airlines; before deregulation TWA, American Airlines , United Airlines , and Eastern Air Lines were collectively known as the "Big Four". It also had a substantial feeder operation from smaller cities in the Midwestern United States . Beyond the U.S., TWA had a large European and Middle Eastern network, served mainly from its hub, the iconic TWA Flight Centre , at John F. Kennedy International Airport . For a few years its routes circumnavigated the globe. Along with Pan Am, it was considered to be a secondary unofficial flag carrier for the United States, especially after Pan Am was dissolved in the early 1990s.

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