[Anonymous]

[dutchyankee]

I am a bit of an airline memorabilia collector, and one of the things I am most fascinated about are the historic routes airlines used to fly.

Of course in the earlier years of transport up to the 70′ and 80’s many stops en-route were aircraft range required, but who would have imagined today, for example, Rangoon appearing on so many airline route maps including BOAC and Pan Am, and that you could fly directly between Theran and Tel Aviv on over 6 airlines.

There are plenty of interesting historic routes out there such as Qantas to London via Hawaii, Acapulco, Nassau, and Bermuda. I mean really, Qantas to Acapulco. Would love to hear from posters any of their favorite historic routes.

[DavidGordon10]

Easy! – LHR to PRG and return on CSA. Sadly missed.

[AMcWhirter]

Hello dutchyankee

Here’s a 1973 route map for QF at the time when SQ was beginning to establish itself but before the days of CX serving Europe and certainly well before the likes of EK appeared on the scene.

Imagine, in those far off days QF used to serve (in addition to the points you mention) Damascus and Teheran.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/caribb/5408775461

Other multi-stop routes I can recall are the famous PA flights 1 + 2 and the JL Silk Route services linking Europe with Tokyo via Teheran, Karachi, Delhi, Bangkok and Hong Kong.

[epeek06]

Well not really a historic route but still one that I really enjoyed was BA from LHR to Harare(Zimbabwe) via Jo’burg. A wide variety of European airlines served this route such as KLM, Swissair, Austrian airlines during the 90’s when Harare was a prime destination.

BA ceased operations in 2007 ( one can now fly there with comair from jo’burg). The only international airlines that fly there are Emirates, Ethiopian, Kenya Air, and South African airways.

Apparently, as of October 2012 KLM is serving the Harare route again.

I will never forget numerous times where I sat on the terrace lounge(old fashion 40’s lounge bar) at Harare airport (a colonial style airport) overlooking the tarmac where a beautiful BA 747 stood getting ready for the night trip over back to Heathrow. When ready to board we would just walk from the terminal to the plane. Memories I will always remember!

[dutchyankee]

Hi LondonCity, nothing resonates with historic routes such as PA 1 and 2, those Round The World flights are what airline history is all about. So many cities appeared on those routes including Baghdad, Tehran, Damascus, Saigon, and Rangoon, to name some of the more surprising cities when looking at politics these days!

@epeek06, as an avid fan of Africa, I fondly remember as a child when my dad’s work moved us to Kinshsa and we would frequently fly back to the States with PA 707’s stopping in Douala, Lagos, Accra, Abidjan, Monrovia and Dakar before crossing the Atlantic to JFK. Amazing times!

[sparkyflier]

Hi dutchyankee from your fellow Africa fan. As a kid I once did a LHR – ZRH, Cairo Khartoum, Entebbe and then Blantyre flight on a BA VC-10. Was awful I recall, but would probably enjoy it now!

I recall also as a kid 707s from Lusaka to LGW on Bcal, some of which stopped at Douala, but looking at the inflight magazine and the route maps at the back helped my with my geography! Also UTA CDG-Luanda (Russian jets all over the apron, reaching far into the distance) -Gaborone, and then a few months later CDG-Libreville-Lusaka.

I also flew Alitalia from Lagos to Abidjan,( where the flight was 5 hours late and the cabin crew were happy/tipsy, even getting a music box out at the galley to play their own music) before then heading for Rome.

I recall my old man flying Lagos-Nairobi on a Panam 747, and I was somewhat envious!

[mislatatony]

In the 50´s I remember the BOAC Stratocruisers to Accra, 18 hr. flights
Heathrow-Rome-Kano-Accra, then the Britannias, 12 hours, changing Rome for Barcelona. Plenty of time to visit the flight deck. I think the VC10´s in the 60´s did the first non-stop flights to Lagos in 6 hours but still very welcome on the flight deck.

[WarrenStanborough7]

And not forgetting BOAC flying VC10’s (hush-power) from SYD to LHR via NAN, HNL, LAX and JFK. The transit in LAX was about 8 hours (hotel room provided even for economy pax) so the flight could land at JFK within operating hours. I took the flight and thought I’d never get to LHR. But I was young and it was all an adventure…

[Ah,Mr.Bond]

In 1987 I flew from Carlisle to Jersey on a British Air Ferries Vickers Viscount. I was at school then and have no idea if this was a scheduled service or not. Nothing flies out of Carlisle these days.

[Cedric_Statherby]

My very first flight was from Southend to Ostend, on (of all things) a car transporter. For those interested in what now seems an absurd way to travel (think of the carbon footprint!) here is a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_United_Air_Ferries

[SenatorGold]

Here are some more African routes from the early to mid 70’s:

SAS: Johannesburg – Nairobi – Athens – Vienna – Copenhagen
KLM: Johannesburg – Brazzaville – Kano – Amsterdam
UTA: Johannesburg – Kinshasa – Nice – Paris
Swissair: Johannesburg – Dar es Salaam – Nairobi – Zurich

All these routes were served by DC8s and later DC10s

The Pan Am flight dutchyankee refers to would continue to and from Johannesburg.

In or about 1973 BOAC (later BA) started a VC10 service Johannesburg – Seychelles – Colombo – Hong Kong – Tokyo. I think the service lasted until about 1985.

In the early 70’s BOAC flew its VC10s from Blantyre to LHR via Nairobi and Nicosia.

The first BOAC 747s on the London to Johannesburg route stopped in Frankfurt or Rome or Zurich but always Nairobi.

Meanwhile in the apartheid days, South African Airways were forbidden to fly over Africa and so flew from Johannesburg to Europe via Luanda (whilst under Portugese control) and variously Ilha do Sal and Las Palmas. In or about 1970 SAA had a route from Cape Town to London via Luanda and Lisbon.

BOAC and later BA used to fly B707s to Georgetown, Guyana. For a while in the 70’s BA flew to Panama City.

[Ah,Mr.Bond]

Aug 1982 …
Singapore Airlines 747-200: LHR-Abu Dhabi – Bombay -Singapore

[dutchyankee]

@SenatorGold, those all sound interesting. When my parents lived in RSA in the early eighties I used to fly on SAA from JNB to JFK via Sal Island, always arriving on Sal at an ungodly hour, crew change and then onwards.

Pan Am also used to fly to JNB via Rio after they stopped the Kinshasa to JNB leg. Eventually Pan Am did 747SP jaunts to JNB via Abidjan and/or Monrovia.

I love the VC10, and only had the chance to fly on it twice, once on Gulf Air from Dubai to Paris via Bahrain, Beirut and Athens, and on BA to JFK. Such a beautiful aircraft, but I recall that while on DC-8’s and 707’s they had inflight movie equipment that they did not install this ever on VC10’s, but I might be wrong. Sure would make a trip like the BA VC10 from SYD to LHR via the USA quite a long, boring affair.

[SenatorGold]

@dutchyankee, you’re right about the Pan Am services to Johannesburg. Before they started flying via Rio, SAA had flown Johannesburg – Rio – New York with B707s before dropping this route in favour of routing via Ilha do Sal.

Pan Am also flew from New York via West Africa and Nairobi to Dar es Salaam.

Varig flew Johannesburg to Rio, initially non stop before routing via Cape Town. This made them one of the few international carriers serving Cape Town. The return flight was non stop.

Iberia flew DC8s Madrid – Kinshasa – Johannesburg before changing to DC10s via Nairobi.

In April 1973 both SAA and Aerolineas Argentinas opened a service between Cape Town and Buenos Aires v.v.

Qantas flew Johannesburg – Mauritius – Perth – Melbourne – Sydney. When this service started in the 1950s there was an additional stop in the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

In October 1984 was the start of BA’s service to Cape Town, in those days once a week via Harare on a B747. Similarly their Durban service which started in 1982 routed through Harare. Later Harare became a terminator service and the Cape Town and Durban services were routed through Johannesburg. In December 1992 the Cape Town service became non stop and Durban was dropped in or about 1997.

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