[Bullfrog]

Please correct me if I am wrong, but did BOAC fly LHR to Vancouver and on to Auckland ?

SAA used to route to Tel Aviv around the west coast of Africa, possibly with a stop in Western Europe en route .. I forget.

All the flights from Heathrow to Asia with stops in Anchorage.

December 1978 I took a BA 747 to Singapore via Muscat.

In Jan 1979, I boarded a BA 747 in Bangkok which had arrived from Hong Kong. Our routing was to Delhi & Heathrow via Frankfurt. The Russian war had started in Afghanistan & due to air traffic restrictions, our 747 could not get to London with its full payload.

[Binman62]

Dont know abut YVR to AKL but they did operate ANC to NRT as well as other Japanese cities.

SAA also operated the LHR CPT route via Sal Island in the late 80’s as they did not have the range or over flying rights to make it non stop.

BA also operated a 747 to Rome as part of a longer route but for the life of me I cannot remember what it was.

BHX euro hub also had flights to from Europe and on to GLA EDI ABZ etc. Brilliant for avoiding LHR.

[LuganoPirate]

I remember the UTA flight Paris-Nice-Brazzaville-JNB-Leopoldville-Nice-Paris in a DC8 I think?

Then Nigeian Airways Lagos-Togo-Accra-Abidjan-Conakry-Dakar. It was like a bus, it landed, stopped, pax disembarked and the embarking pax were waiting at the foot of the stairs to get on, then off it went again.

[LuganoPirate]

Dutchyankee, I may have mentioned this before, but get the book “Beyond the Blue Horizon”. You’ll love it.

[Bullfrog]

Beyond the Blue Horizon is a great read.

In the early 80s, SAA used to operate a non stop 747 SP on a Saturday night from Heathrow to Cape Town. The return leg stopped at isle Do Sal.

[dutchyankee]

Thanks LuganoPirate, just ordered it on Amazon! I am looking forward to it!

[LHR_Fan]

1979 I flew LHR-BOM with AI and the enroute stops were GVA and FCO.

Back then BOM seemed a long way away so I could appreciate the reason behind all those stops. I’d never even imagined that a few years later I could fly non stop and it would only take about 8 hours to do that.

[AMcWhirter]

What about the early 1970s when you could encounter Pan Am flight crew on board Iran Air. I remember taking an Iran Air B727 from LHR to THR which routed via ORY and IST.

The Heathrow to Asia routes via Anchorage mentioned earlier applied only to Japan and S Korea. It applied also to all flights from Europe as, at that time in the 1970s, the Soviets did not grant overflying rights.

[dutchyankee]

@LondonCity, for many years, Pan Am operated a mini-hub of sorts in Tehran and actually assisted Iran Air in its operations, leasing a number of aircraft as well to Iran Air. Iran Air’s flights to JFK also used the PA World Port Terminal. Further, one of Pan Am’s first InterContinental Hotels in the Middle East was opened in Tehran. So a long history between Pan Am, Iran, and Iran Air prior to the revolution.

[TominScotland]

In terms of routes, my memory of Aeroflot routes during the 1970s and 1980s is that they stopped more frequently than the 13A bus!! Their scheduling also provided for very infrequent service on many routes – every fortnight or only on specific dates – very much the tool of Soviet Imperialism at the time.

My favourite SU route was one of my first trips to Asia: London – Berlin (Schonefeld) – Moscow – (change) – Tashkent – New Delhi – Bangkok – Kuala Lumpur – Singapore. Inflight catering on each of the final two legs was a bag of bananas…..

[AMcWhirter]

dutchyankee – tks for reminding me about the then PA/Iran Air co-operation. As for IHC in Iran … I did stay at the IHCs in Teheran and Shiraz way back in 1972. What a different country Iran was in those days.

The other Iran Air flights I took in those days, namely from Teheran to Kabul and return, also from Shiraz to LHR via Abadan were, if I remember correctly, operated by Iranian flight crew.

Tomin Scotland – to the best of my knowledge, SU never had traffic rights between London and SXF. The flight was operated by LOT en route to WAW using an IL-18 turbo-prop. I don’t believe Interflug (the national carrier of East Germany) ever operated into London although it did serve other points in Europe such as AMS.

In those days, the 1960s, UK travellers usually accessed East Berlin by flying into West Berlin and then crossing the frontier by road at Checkpoint Charlie or by S-Bahn at Freidrichstrasse. No Western carrier operated into SXF.

Of course, the Berlin air corridor (linking Germany/W Europe to West Berlin with flights restricted to airlines of UK, US and France) is a story itself.

[LuganoPirate]

Dutchyankee, this is a great thread by the way, I think I found another historic air route?

Anyone remember FRA-ATH-KHI-DEL-BKK-SIN-SYD flown by Lufthansa? It’s mentioned in a book on Qantas history and started in 1965. I guess that would have been in a 707 then.

What a great route that would have been and I wonder when and why they stopped it?

[dutchyankee]

Hi LuganoPirate, thanks. I love the history of airlines, and when you look at some of these routes from years ago, it is so amazing, the number of stops enroute, and the difference due to politics then and now, it is such a eye-opener on the possibilities then and now. Many European airlines flew their own services to Australia back then, and I remember a KLM route similar to teh one you mentioned from LH, going AMS-FCO-ATH-DXB-CMB-SIN-CGK-SYD-MEL, imagine that on a DC-8-63 and then the ‘new’ 747. Incredible!! I would have loved to been able to fly on the Stratocruiser, the Comet, or the earlier piston aircraft such as the Connie, DC6 and DC7, it all has an aura of romance and adventure.

All the best, DutchYankee

[TominScotland]

Worth remembering, too that in pre-deregulation days, airlines did not have 5th freedom rights on most of these legs so will have arrived at their final destination maybe 25 per cent full.

[SenatorGold]

In the 1971 movie, “Diamonds are Forever” James Bond flies on a Lufthansa B707 from Amsterdam to Los Angeles. This was an actual route – FRA – AMS – LAX – that Lufthansa flew at least until the mid-70s.

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