Pan American World Airways also known as Pan American Airways or simply as Pan Am (sometimes incorrectly stylized as Pan-Am or pan-am) was an American airline and innovation company based in New York City and Miami. As the principle unofficial flag carrier of America's aviation industry, the company was among one of the largest aviation companies in the world when it operated. Founded in 1927, Pan Am started out as a small passenger and air mail company. Quickly growing by the 1940s and 1950s to be the first major American airline. By the 1980s the company faced harsh opposition due to deregulation of the aviation sector and eventually was dissolved in 1991 due to bankruptcy.