Business

When Braniff airlines suddenly canceled virtually all its 256 daily flights last Wednesday, many customers must have had a sinking sense of deja vu. Just five years after the airline emerged from a two-year bout with Chapter 11, Braniff said it was filing for bankruptcy protection once again. The company's decision seemed all the more abrupt because only last May it moved its headquarters from Dallas to Orlando and ordered 50 new Airbus A320 jetliners for $2 billion.

Braniff's bullish executives had hoped to find a niche for the midsize airline by developing a hub at the Kansas City airport, an opening that was created by a retrenchment at bankrupt Eastern Airlines. But Braniff's business failed to grow fast enough to support its debt payments. When a recent bridge financing deal for $75 million fell through, Braniff was strapped for cash. The bankrupt airline, which has laid off 2,800 of its 4,800 employees, hopes to rebuild slowly.