Cameroon Airlines network, May 1975

Yet another gem from Timetable Images, this vintage artifact shows the extent of Cameroon Airline's operations from May 1975, at the height of the era when the airline adopted its psychedelically sweeping script. The cartography here is roughly accurate, the continental forms more sketch than measure, and the bright pink outline of the Republic is hugely oversized to its actual proportion, taking up much of what would actually be Nigeria, its crown-craned head stretching well into the central African territory that is actually occupied by Chad.

Unlike yesterday's post, showing the domestic network, here Douala takes center stage, with three intercontinental offerings: direct to Paris, direct to Marseille then Paris, and Rome-Paris and Nice-Paris. Curiously, the cover above differs from the inside Timetable, showing Geneva, and not Nice.

To the west, a classic West African coastal route hops twice-weekly to Lagos, Cotonou and Abidjan before leaping to end at Dakar; there's also a tiny jump to nearby Malabo (also absent from the index inside). A short southernly operation links Libreville and Brazzaville. The only international service from Yaoundé appears to be to Bangui. Lastly, and interestingly, the well-emphasized pan-Cameroonian interieur operation up the spine of the crown-craned country, Ngaoundéré-Garoua-Maroua, terminating at N'Djamena.

Special thanks to the incredible Timetable Image blog run by Björn Larsson, where credit is due for this item. 

Regular Domestic Flights of Cameroon Airlines, c.1977

The domestic operations of Cameroon Airlines, as published in the "Transport" chapter of an old promotional hardback profile of the central African nation, c.1977. The nation looks dashingly dinosaurish as always, the rounded edges of its peculiar profile squared off in an early computer graphic program.

Interestingly, it is Yaoundé which appears to be the major hub; bigger, more commercial Douala is an after-thought in the lower-left corner of the country, looking no more important than tiny Tiko.  However, through some oversight, the capital city is not shown as featuring an international airport. Douala does not participate in the Garoua central air artery, which links Maroua and Yagoua and terminates at the Chadian capital, N'Djamena, the only non-domestic city shown on the map.

The information is quite similar to the airline's own literature from the same period (published here in 2011), with slight changes in domestic webbing.

Cameroon Airlines: Monday Service Douala-Lagos-Paris, April 1994

A phone card of some 18 years vintage, which advertises late-classic Cameroon Airlines, specifically its Monday service from Douala to Paris via Lagos, on a massive B747. Possible onward service (via connecting carriers, it doesn't explicitly mention) is offered to over 200 destinations, while the map samples Frankfurt, London, and New York. However, Paris's location is more accurate if it were Prague; "Francfort" is shown as being somewhere in Western Kazakhstan; while "Londres" is placed about two-thirds of the way between Helsinki and Murmansk. L'envol sur le Monde, the tagline beckons-- "take-off to the world."

Cameroon Airlines: Systemwide Network

Although Cameroon Airlines never abandoned its psychadelic-jungle imagery, it apparently had, by 1996, divested in original graphic design, seeming to opt instead to scrawl its network over a readymade map.

Its not clear from this artifact (borrowed from the incredible archives of Timetable Images, specifically the collection of Björn Larsson) what the red lines indicate, as opposed to the green lines, or why some destinations are in red type and others, such as Harare, Libreville Brazzaville, have no demarcation beyond what the atlas already provided. This leaves some details unclear: for instance, while the Douala-Garoua-Jeddah and Douala-Garoua-N'Djamena routes can be made out, it is difficult to determine whether the airline served Point-Noire or Lomé, or if the East African route, from Brazzaville to Nairobi, used Bujumbura, Kigali, Entebbe, Goma, or Kivu as way stations.

Cameroon Airlines: Systemwide Network, Summer 1976

One of the earliest and most marked secessions from the Air Afrique consortium was the Republic of Cameroon, which withdrew in 1971 to found its own flag carrier, Cameroon Airlines.

This overbright document, colored and typefaced like a Chinese menu, exemplifies the very singular presence of the airline's quasi-Maoist, neo-hippie branding, from its Star-and-crane logo to its jungle-chic Paris ticket office. from the incredible archives of Timetable Images.

A dense domestic network, was concentrated on the English-speaking southwest and zig-zagged northward to terminate at N'Djamena. Long-range ventures out of Douala reached Marseille, Paris-Orly, Geneva and Rome, likely with B707s-- the pride of fleet B747s, rarely native to tropical Africa, did not arrive until 1982. No international or intercontinental flights out of Yaoundé (Nsimalen International Airport now enjoys service from Air France, Brussels Airlines, and Swissair, at least).

Like many Air Afrique replacements, Cameroon Airlines did not last, and the country is left with fledgling, marginal re-iterations: Camair Co is scheduled to begin flying tomorrow to--where else? Paris. Also here.

This, like several other recent installments, is from the incredible archives of Timetable Images, specifically the collection of Björn Larsson-- reprinted with appreciation.