Air Zaïre Network, 1981

Given this week's sleek but slender offerings from newly-minted Korongo, its incredible to look back a time when Congolese carriers had a much wider reach: the above poster shows the spread of Air Zaïre at its zenith, when it was "also celebrating 20 years" since its founding in 1961 as Air Congo.

The national carrier had an astonishing array of services, which are here represented by a powerful kinetic gesture reminiscent of an African antelope artwork. The European cities are connected by the arc of the animal's horn: Athens, Rome, Geneva, Frankfurt, Madrid, Amsterdam, London, Paris, and of course Brussels. 

The second horn aligns with the West African route, linking Kinshasa with Lagos, Libreville, Douala, Lomé, Abidjan, and Dakar. Lubumbashi is the only domestic destination included here but was hardly the only internal operation. 

East Africa on the animal's underside show Lusaka, its southernmost city (South Africa was shunned) but also Kigali, Bujumbura, Nairobi, Entebbe and Dar Es Salaam.

This calligraphic creature was used for a number of years, appearing on timetables and other advertisements. Air Zaïre's fortunes would sink with the rest of the continent's aviation companies, and indeed with country itself, which continues to be mired in conditions far less promising than a quarter century ago. 

Air Zaïre: Timetable of Services from Kinshasa, 1977

Continuing from the previous post, the latter portion of Air Zaïre's 1977 timetable showing services from Kinshasa shows DC-10 services to several cities in Europe, again including not only likely candidates such as Paris, but also unusual stops such as Sunday flight to Rome and stop in Madrid on the way to CDG.

Kinshasa seemed to be a budding hub in those days, making use of its natural geographic location at the center of the continent. Service to African capitals radiated in eastward and westward directions, to francophone capitals like Lomé and Libreville, but also major anglophone cities like Lagos and Nairobi, mostly using the Boeing 737s.

A host of domestic destinations included major cities like Mbuji-Mayi, Lubumbashi, and Kisangani. A number of smaller Zaïrian cities were connected to the capital and these secondary cities with the turboprop Fokker F-27 Friendship.

As mentioned previously, air service is essential to a sparsely-populated territory the size of Western Europe, with even today only a few thousand miles or paved roads. Compared to the 2009 Hewa Bora map, however, Air Zaïre of more than 30 years previous served a great many more destinations.

The above is part of the collection of Björn Larsson, and is reposted under the generous privileges of the fantastic Timetable Images website.

Please see the previous post for the first page of this timetable.

Air Zaïre: Timetable of Services from Kinshasa, 1977

The services of Air Zaïre from its home base at N'Djili Airport near Kinshasa was indexed in this straightforward timetable from 1977.

Weekly routes spread across West, Central and Eastern Africa, Dakar to Douala to Dar Es Salaam, mostly with B737s. Domestic destinations were also served with a pair of Boeing 737 jets or Fokker F-27 Friendship turboprops. A number of connections to the Great Lakes region connected in Kisangani Bangoka International Airport (FKI) or Lisala (LIQ), birthplace of the country's kleptocratic despot, Mobutu Sese Seko.

Northward routes reached Europe with two widebody DC-10s, the flagships of the fleet. While its no surprise that the airline connected Kinshasa to Brussels thrice-weekly, it is somewhat more remarkable that a Wednesday morning departure arrived in Athens later in the evening--an uncommon destination from equatorial Africa nowadays.

The above is part of the collection of Björn Larsson, and is reposted under the generous privileges of the fantastic Timetable Images website.

The next post will detail the second portion of Air Zaïre's 1977 timetable.