[AMcWhirter]

Some of my own favourites way back in the 70s were those multi-stop flights between London and the Far East. Airlines in those days had traffic rights between the various stopping points.

JAL used to operate a Silk Route service from LHR to Tokyo (Haneda in those days). It was a B747 which I used in 1975 from LHR to DEL with stops in FCO and either THR or KHI (can’t remember which).

I disembarked in DEL and after a few days stay I continued with the same Silk Route JAL B747 flight on to BKK.

I came back home with JAL from BKK and again there were the same en route stops.

In those days the B747 was configured 9-across and legroom must have been around 35 ins. There was plenty of space. The airlines had yet to squeeze in another seat and tighten up legroom.

Another flight I took to BKK in 1973 was with the British Airways charter division based at LGW.

The aircraft was one of the early ex-BOAC B707s and had to stop twice en route for refuelling.

The stops were in DXB and CMB.

DXB in those days had a terminal the size of the one at LCY today and there were few flights.

The duty-free shop was one of the world’s cheapest in those days. But it was the size of a corner shop.

Staff served you by hand over a counter and handed you the goods wrapped in brown paper.

There was no fancy packaging, no fancy displays, no fancy lighting and so on – just low prices.

I remember that BA sourced its catering for the flight from one of the local first class hotels (and there were few of those in 1973) rather than the airport caterer (if indeed there was one).

Emirates didn’t appear on the scene until 1985.

Now of course DXB is the world’s leading international airport with home carrier Emirates the largest international airline (based on flown mileage).

[SenatorGold]

I can confirm what dutchyankee says about SAA 747s having to stop on their outbound journeys from JNB to Europe. I recall in June 1975 flying with SAA from JNB to LHR and stopping en route at Ilha do Sal. The return journey was non-stop albeit still flying around the bulge. For a short while the airport at Upington in the northern Cape (as it then was), was used as a technical stop en route to Europe.

Certainly until the late 70’s European airlines would stop either on the western or eastern side of Africa en route to JNB.

Swissair had both routes – Zurich-Nairobi-Dar es Salaam-Johannesburg (first with a DC8 and later with a DC10) and Zurich-Kinshasa-Johannesburg.

KLM flew Amsterdam-Kano-Brazzaville-Johannesburg while UTA flew Paris-Nice-Kinshasa-Johannesburg. Alitalia flew Rome-Kinshasa-Johannesburg. All three used DC8s.

BOAC/BA flew LHR-Frankfurt/Rome/Zurich-Nairobi-Johannesburg, first with VC10s and later with B747s.

Lufthansa flew Frankfurt-Kinshasa-Johannesburg as well as Frankfurt-Nairobi-Johannesburg. The Kinshasa route was flown with B707 which was stopped shortly after they began flying B747s on the Nairobi-Johannesburg route in February 1972.

Cape Town was closed to European airlines until 1984 when BA started flying once a week via Harare.

[Bullfrog]

And I remember my frequent trips from Heathrow, non stop to Cape Town. The route was served once a week on a Saturday night, by SAA with a 747 SP.

[GrandSlam]

Amazing thread!
Also take a look at www dot timetableimages dot com
http://www.timetableimages.com/

[dutchyankee]

Great site, thanks for the link, excellent!

[Hermes1964]

Ferryfield (Lydd in Kent) to Le Touquet on a Bristol Freighter. There and back for lunch in the late 1960s.

[NameRemoved-18/12/14]

Hello Alex @ 15:18

‘hot and high airfield’ wrt JNB.

Does that explain the longest take-off I have experienced in my life on a 744?

[JonathanM8]

A variation of Skywards MAN to NEW….
In 1997/98 I used to take a small turbo-prop from Manchester to Teeside. Its origins were as a ‘scheduled charter’ for ICI – presumably ferrying staff from their plant in NW England to Billingham. At some time they must have opened it up to ‘ordinary’ passengers. I cant remember the airline or the type of aircraft, but it was about 8-10 seats and the views over the Pennines on a clear day were spectacular!

[AMcWhirter]

Hello alexpo

Probably.

[LuganoPirate]

I remember in the early 80’s SIA would fly AMS ZRH DBX CMB SIN taking just over 18 hours for this route.

UTA wold also stop at Zaire alternating with Kinshasa on the way to JNB (or back) in the 70’s for refuelling.

I now understand why Uppington has such a long runway if it was used by the 747’s for refuelling n the way to Europe.

[STORMIN']

Just caught up with this thread. The airline that operated this route – DND/CAX/LHR/CAX/DND was Air Ecosse with a SD-360. AIr Ecosse had a contract with Royal Mail to move mail around overnight and operated the foregoing rotation twice during the day. The aircraft was painted in a Post Office Red colour.scheme and was registered G-RMSS (for Royal Mail Special Services). The service operated from about 1983 for a couple of years or so. I used it frequently. Prior to that, Air Ecosse operated a LPL/CAX/DND rotation which connected with a LHR/LPL BMA F27 service, that called at Barrow-on-Furness (Walney Island) on request. That service operated only for a short time – 1982/1983 – with a DHC-6 if my memory serves me correctly

[openfly]

@STORMIN Prior to Air Ecosse, I used Autair several times in the late 60s/early 70s on DND-CAX-LTN. Hot breakfast and dinner served!

[pdtraveller]

BA serving routes within the UK other than those to and from LHR. Now tot is historic!!:)

[MK430AL]

Some memorable routes for the wrong reasons.
BA 9 – Capt Eric Moody – LHR-BOM-MAA-KUL-PER-MEL-AKL. This is the route as per internet but this flight had multiple routings as I do remember when my Dad had taken the same flight in the same year between BOM and PER., the route was LHR-BOM-PER-MEL-AKL. Certainly Indian government did not allow Cabotage (traffic rights between BOM and MAA) anyway during those times.

There is also BA 149 LHR KWI MAA KUL which got stranded in KWI during the Iraqi Invasion.

And there was one memorable domestic flight in India till about 4 years back. Kingfisher Airlines operated an ATR-72 between Chennai and Goa via (hold your breath) Trivadrum-Kochi-Kozhikode and Mangalore (IT 2882/2283 MAA-TRV-COK-CCJ-IXE-GOI and v,v). The same route is now operated by Spice Jet non stop on a Q 400.

[STORMIN']

@dutchyankee – 10/07/2013 12:21 GMT

The mention of BA 710 brings back memories. This was my very first flight as a young lad heading off out from school to visit the family in 1963. As you say, this was a Comet 4 service and operated the routeing that you describe except that, in my case, Rangoon was substituted by Bangkok where I was headed whilst I thought that the service terminated at Singapore rather than heading off down to Australia. I only used this particular flight once as all subsequent flights to / from BKK were on the B707 which operated the HKG route through BKK which, if memory serves me correctly, routed through Rome, Beirut, Teheran, Delhi and Bangkok

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