Friday, March 7, 2014

Bouraq Network, c.1970


Despite the drab analog appearance, this monochrome type-written document, diagramming the network of Bouraq Airlines, is so evocative of its vintage. It could not have been created far from the Indonesian airline's founding in 1970, possibly punched out on a clanging Olivetti in a sweltering tropical office, shaded by shutters and stirred by ceiling fans. It somehow fits the airline's atmosphere, with its aged fleet emblazoned with vintage markings.

The document itself shows Bouraq's base at Balikpapan on Borneo, with links spanning across the Kalimantan provinces, eastward out to nearby Celebes, connecting to Ujung Pandang and beyond and at the bottom of the page reaching the huge cities of Java, Surabaya, Semarang, and Bandung, and as far away as the nation's capital, Jakarta.

Bouraq would remain the humongous archipelago's primary independent domestic airline until its demise in 2005.

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