Its main transatlantic hub was the TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, an architectural icon designed by Eero Saarinen, and completed in 1962.

On February 18, 1934, Frye (pilot) and Eastern Air Lines' head Eddie Rickenbacker (co-pilot), flew the DC-1 from Glendale, California, to Newark, New Jersey, setting a transcontinental record of 13 hours and 4 minutes.

Frye then approached another flying enthusiast, Howard Hughes, along with Algur H. Meadows and his business partner Henry W. Peters, to buy stock in 1937.

Hollywood passengers included Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, William Powell, Frank Morgan, Walter Pidgeon, Tyrone Power, Edward G. Robinson.

Hughes's financial advisor Noah Dietrich wrote that "Frye's inept handling of costs, his inefficient operations, his extravagance with new purchases of equipment, all these factors combined to nosedive the TWA stock from 71 at the war's end to 9 in 1947".

The airline was losing $20,000,000 a year, was in danger of not being able to acquire fuel for its planes due to being deeply indebted to oil companies, and the pilot's union went on strike.

[11]: 376, 378, 399 Under new management, the Trans World Corporation (TWA's holding company) expanded to purchase Hilton Hotels, Hardee's, Canteen Corp., and Century 21 Realty.

The TWA-style airport design proved impractical when hijackings to Cuba in the late 1960s caused a need for central security checkpoints.

In 1962, TWA opened Trans World Flight Center, now Terminal 5 (or simply T5), at New York City's JFK Airport and designed by Eero Saarinen.

Following union strife, the airport ultimately cost $250 million when it opened in 1972, with Vice President Spiro Agnew officiating.

That morning aircraft ground-service personnel placed a booklet on every passenger seat throughout the TWA system titled "Props Are For Boats".

During the mid and late 1960s, the airline extended its reach as far east as Hong Kong from Europe and also introduced service to several destinations in Africa.

In 1987, TWA had a transatlantic system reaching from Los Angeles to Bombay, including virtually every major European population center, with 10 American gateways.

After the merger with Hilton International in 1967, TWA's holding company, Trans World Corp., continued to diversify, buying Canteen Corp. in 1973, and then the Hardee's restaurant franchises.

Financial woes in the 1970s included a flight attendants' strike, higher fuel prices after the Arab Oil Embargo, and airline deregulation.

[25] Facing the pressures of deregulation, the airline consolidated its route system around a domestic hub in St. Louis, aided by its purchase of Ozark Air Lines in 1986, and an international gateway in New York.

The following year, TWA acquired Ozark Air Lines, a regional carrier based at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, for $250 million.

Its Boeing 727 aircraft served Cairo, Athens, Rome, London, Paris, Geneva, Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Zürich, Amsterdam, Oslo, Vienna, and Istanbul.

[34] Every day, Boeing 747, Lockheed L-1011, and Boeing 767 aircraft departed to more than 30 cities in Europe, fed by a small but effective domestic operation focused on moving U.S. passengers to New York or other gateway cities for wide-body service across the Atlantic, while a similar inter-European operation shuttled non-U.S. passengers to TWA's European gateways—London, Paris (which was even considered a European hub by TWA), and Frankfurt—for travel to the United States.

Shortly before the DC-9 airplanes began arriving in Germany, however, the entire plan was cancelled because the leasing contracts that Carl Icahn had created for the former Ozark DC-9s specifically forbade any operations outside the continental limits of the United States.

Based on available reports, there are allegations that he purportedly articulated the perspective that the Pacific area and the freight business exhibit a deficiency in financial performance.

In that deal, Icahn had to pay TWA $150 million, the employees reduced compensation by 15% over the next three years, and the creditors forgave $1 billion in debt.

As a result, TWA was hamstrung by the high proportion of heavily discounted seats that had been sold and was essentially left with no control over its pricing.

[citation needed] TWA stated that it planned to make Los Angeles a focus city around October 2000, with a partnership with American Eagle Airlines as part of Trans World Connection.

[47] TWA Airlines LLC flew its last flight on December 1, 2001, with an MD-83 aircraft painted in a special inverted livery named "Wings of Pride" (N948TW).

One of the first to gain wide press coverage was the crash of NC1946 (a DC-3), operating as Flight 3, which killed Hollywood film star Carole Lombard, her mother, and 20 others.

The aircraft was struck by lightning while flying at 11,000 feet above the ground, disintegrated with a tremendous explosion, burst into flames and crashed in several charred parts scattered over an area of five miles From 1969 to 1986, six TWA airliners were terrorist targets for Palestinian fedayeen, four of which were hijackings and two were bombings, mainly because the airline had a strong European presence, was a flag carrier for the United States, and flew to Israel.

TWA's worst accident occurred on July 17, 1996, when Flight 800, a Boeing 747 en route to Paris, exploded over the Atlantic Ocean near Long Island, killing all 230 people on board.

In their subsequent coverage, the media focused heavily on the fact that TWA's airline fleet was among the oldest in service (the 747 used for Flight 800 was manufactured in 1971, making it 25 years old at the time of the incident).

TWA had crew bases in Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., St. Louis, Kansas City, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Frankfurt.