Talaat Captan, the founder of Air Hollywood and creator of the Pan Am Experience, is one of four executives working to bring Pan American World Airways back to aviation and travel, alongside Craig Carter, Steve Craig and Jeff Cova. With Pan Am’s 100th anniversary now a year away, this update gathers what has been publicly reported about the revival in 2025 and 2026, drawing only on published sources.
Who is behind the revival
According to the Orange County Business Journal, the four partners acquired Pan American Global Holdings LLC in a deal that closed in February 2024. The paper identified Steve Craig, founder of Craig Realty Group, as chairman; Craig Carter as chief executive; and Jeff Cova as head of Pan Am Travel, a corporate travel agency that opened in Laguna Hills in November 2024. It described Captan as the co-creator and operator of the Pan Am Experience, which he launched with collector Anthony Toth. Our earlier post on the OCBJ report covers that article in more detail.
The partnership has roots in Captan’s day job. The OCBJ reported that before the acquisition, Carter, then running a travel management company in Irvine, had hired Captan to find and buy a decommissioned Delta aircraft. Sourcing retired airliners and their parts is something Air Hollywood has done since its founding in 1998.
The airline: an FAA filing and a measured plan
The most closely watched part of the revival is the return of scheduled flying. In October 2025, AeroTime reported that AVi8 Air Capital, working with Pan Am’s brand owners, had begun the FAA certification process and completed a business plan, with the airline to be based in Miami and to fly Airbus aircraft. The OCBJ reported that the owners filed in September 2025 for Part 121 status, the certificate that allows a US carrier to operate scheduled service, and planned to start with four Airbus jets and grow to 16.
In June 2026, Inc. reported that Carter expected the certificate to be approved within about a year. He described a gradual approach: scheduled charters first, then scheduled service, concentrating on the right markets and partnerships, with roughly 16 aircraft in five years. As of the latest reporting we found, no approval or launch date had been announced, and the airline still needs regulatory sign-off before regular service can begin.
Pan Am has already put its name back in the air for special trips. Inc. noted that in 2025 a market-test journey from New York’s JFK touched down in Bermuda, Lisbon, London and Ireland, Pan Am’s first landings in those countries since 1991, and that a 19-day private jet trip to southern Africa became the second Pan Am Journeys itinerary.
Hospitality: a hotel, a lounge and the Pan Am Experience
Carter told Inc. that the aim is a whole hospitality ecosystem, not just flights. The OCBJ described a Pan Am Hotel being converted from a former office building in the City of Commerce, next to the Citadel Outlets, with 134 rooms and two restaurants, to be operated by Hilton under its Tapestry brand. Opening timelines have moved between reports, from fall 2026 in the OCBJ article to the following spring in Inc.’s June 2026 piece. A Pan Am lounge at JFK is also planned.
This is where Captan’s own creation fits in. The Pan Am Experience is a recreated 1970s Pan Am 747 cabin where guests are served a multi-course dinner by crew in period uniforms, and it has welcomed guests since 2014. The OCBJ reported that the show is set to move to Craig Realty’s Citadel Outlets, with plans to open there in 2027, while Pan Am’s vice president of brands told License Global in April 2026 that the hotel and the Pan Am Experience would open in Los Angeles by the end of 2026. A date for the new location has not yet been announced on panamexperience.com, which currently lists the experience at Air Hollywood in Valencia, California. For background on the attraction itself, see our summaries of CNN Travel’s 2019 feature and TechEBlog’s recent look at how it began.
Counting down to the centennial
Pan Am’s first scheduled flight, an airmail service between Key West and Havana, began on October 28, 1927. Aviation Industry News reported on October 19, 2026 that centennial gatherings are planned in Miami on October 28 and 29, 2027, at The Hangar in Coconut Grove and the Marriott Marquis, with former and current members of the Pan Am community invited.
The same report described a 28-day Holland America Line voyage aboard the Zuiderdam, departing Miami on October 30, 2027 and calling at 18 ports across the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico along routes tied to Pan Am’s flying boat era. License Global also noted brand plans that include a special-edition centennial watch.
What comes next
For Captan, the revival brings together threads that run through his career: more than two decades of sourcing and rebuilding airliner interiors at Air Hollywood, the 747 cabin that became the Pan Am Experience, and a long interest in the golden age of air travel. You can read more about his background on his Air Hollywood founder page or in our timeline of milestones.
The key milestones to watch are an FAA decision on the airline, the opening of the Pan Am Hotel and a confirmed date for the Pan Am Experience’s next chapter. We will cover each one as it is published; for the latest coverage, visit the Press page or return to the home page.
