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The posters shown are not about airline branding, but are travel destination posters. There's a long history of those, from the railroad and ship era.[1]

[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=railroad+travel+posters&tbm=...

I'd rather say they are very good examples of building a brand, by invoking an actual value customers care about. Nobody (except some hard core enthusiasts) flies for the sake of flying, but everyone wants to get to some interesting or otherwise important destinations. That's why the airlines associated their brands with them, instead of bragging about planes, seats, crew etc.
>Travel destination

That's the genius part. What's being sold: air travel. How you're selling it: where you go.

That dates from another era, when people thought of "air travel" as "relaxing" and "fun".

For a sense of what it used to be like, see Air Hollywood's "Pan Am Experience."[1] This is a replica of a Pan Am first class 747 flight from the 1970s, done on the ground by a prop house that bought an old 747, took off the wings, and uses it for film productions. It costs about $400, you don't go anywhere, and the food is really good.

Also, the PSA stewardess class of April 1974.[2]

[1] http://airhollywood.com/panamexp/ [2] http://www.jetpsa.com/stewgrad/stewgrad/7404.jpg