Arrivals at O.R. Tambo, August 2017

A mid-day Arrivals board for O.R. Tambo from a week or so after the previous posts, showing an all-African schedule at the continent's largest airport. Most are operated by hometown carrier South African Airways, and most flights are from the southern African region; indeed, the schedule represents almost every nation in the SADC league, with Gaborone, Botswana appearing three times, from the first, third, and second-to-last flight. Air Botswana operates that third flight, as well as one before it to remote Francistown.

There are other regional connections from Maseru, in Lesotho, the nation that is famously completely surrounded by South Africa; other nearby capitals of almost every other country that borders South Africa Maputo, Windhoek, Blantyre, and Lusaka flights by SAA, and a rare Air Zimbabwe flight from Harare is unsurprisingly delayed. Further afield, there is the trans-ocean service on Air Mauritius arriving just before noon.  The more distant continental connections are the ubiquitous rivalry of Kenya Airways from Nairobi, Ethiopian from Addis Ababa, and Fastjet from Dar Es Salaam—that low-cost start-up's longest route. 

International Departures from O.R. Tambo Airport, July 2017

Staying at the southern end of Africa, a schedule of three hours worth of international departures from O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, the busiest airport on the African continent. The board is dominated by hometown carrier South African Airways, with flights to Walvis Bay and Windhoek, both in Namibia; Lusaka, and Livingstone in Zambia; Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania and Entebbe in Uganda, as well as the final flight shown, to Harare, about two hours after Fastjet's flight to the Zimbabwean capital. 

Indian ocean airlines are also seen here: Air Mauritius and Air Seychelles leave ten minutes apart. Ethiopian Airlines connects to Addis Ababa. 

Air Namibia: Windhoek—Gaborone—Durban, August 2017

Staying with Namibia, as from the previous post, here is a floor banner advertisement at the check-in desk of Sir Seretse Khama International Airport in Gaborone, Botswana, seen in August 2017. Air Namibia is trying to make its lemon into a grapefruit, offering a convenient option connecting their own capital and that of their neighbor with South Africa's tertiary city—what is surely still a thin route. Almost all of Gaborone's air traffic routes through the short hop to the megacity of Johannesburg. 

KLM: New service to Windhoek, October 2016

The recent coverage of KLM's long routes plunging down across the African continent to Johannesburg is relevant to this development from late 2016: the somewhat surprising move by the Dutch Airline to extend its formerly-lucrative Amsterdam—Luanda service to Windhoek, Namibia. Here a travel agency in the center of Nice, France, advertises the news with a plain paper printed notice in the shop window just a few weeks after the public announcement.

The service was celebrated as a major development for the country and an opportunity to boost business and tourism traffic. While it does offer an alternative to the relatively few European connections to the famously sparsely populated country, it presents stiff competition to the struggling national carrier. 

Qatar Airways Route Network, November 2016: The African Routes

Qatar Airways has not merely mimicked its rival Emirates in expanding across Africa, but has in several cases gone beyond the Dubai-based carrier to destinations which it now serves alone. These include more recent additions to the Qatar network, such as Kigali, Maputo (which has had a short and somewhat rocky history as a destination, served thrice-weekly with a Dreamliner), Marrakesh and Windhoek (added only back in October), but also more proximate East African destinations such as Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar (the latter served by flyDubai). The airline competes with Emirates on the major routes from Cape Town to Casablanca, but is not anywhere near as strong in West Africa, flying only to Lagos. 

Air Berlin: The Long-haul Destinations from Munich, summer 2013

A somewhat clever transit-map styling of an Air Berlin wall advert at the Munich Airport U-bahn station, showing the diverse long-haul destinations, which by and large are leisure markets. Four continents are covered: from Phuket and Bangkok in Thailand, and Male in the Maldives, to Mombasa in Kenya and Windhoek in Namibia (the latter two, sadly, seem to have since been dropped from the network). In the Americas, Miami, New York and Los Angeles are complimented by Caribbean resort towns such as Cancún. On the red horizontal line, further sun-and-beach destinations are separated from the more urban trio of Barcelona, Moscow, and Vienna. Strangely, the device isn't carried all the way through, as there is no interchange station in the center where the two lines intersect.

Air Namibia Network, c.2000

From a brochure of Air Namibia from around the year 2000, showing the domestic, regional, and intercontinental network. From Windhoek, the airline's smaller craft fly to Walvis Bay, Lüderitz, Oranjemund, Ondongwa and Katima Mulilo in the Caprivi Strip. Namibia's neighbors are each connected by service to a single city: Maun in Northern Botswana (but not the capital, Gaborone), Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe (but not Harare) and Luanda in Angola. Air Namibia flew to both Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Long-haul routes, highlighted in bright Namibian blue, link London and Frankfurt on-board the pride-of-fleet Airbus A340 aircraft; both it and its international crew and European technical maintenance are featured prominently in the leaflet.

British Airways: the African Routes, 2013

Taken from British Airways' inflight magazine from mid-2013, showing its destinations in Africa from London-Heathrow, but also its regional flights on subsidiary Comair: Maputo, Port Elizabeth, Harare, Windhoek, Victoria Falls, Livingston, and Durban are not served by BA metal, and not long after this map went to print, Lusaka lost its long-standing flag-carrier service to Britain.

South African Airways: the Southern African destinations 2013

Following from the previous post, this promotional brochure shows the ease of connecting to the southern cone of Africa from South African Airways's gateways in Europe: Munich, Frankfurt, and London Heathrow, via Johannesburg. With the map superimposed, these long-haul legs seem mercifully short. Cities in Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique and Malawi are shown, as well as the airline's many domestic destinations. In most cases, especially outside of South Africa, the proposition is to fly from Europe to OR Tambo, passing over a final destination, before tracking back to reach it on a local connection.

Air Zimbabwe Network, 1998

An academic airline illustration, from the January 2000 issue of the Journal of Transport Geography, in a paper titled, "Air Transport Operations and Policy in Zimbabwe, 1980-1998" by Chris Mutambirwa and Brian Turton.

The map isn't a graphic feat, its dry two-toned appearance fitting for the journalism at hand. The map shows not only current routes of Air Zimbabwe in 1998, but those such as Harare-Maputo and Victoria Falls-Windhoek that were withdrawn in 1997. The connecting lines also note the number of weekly flights per route. Gaborone is strangely out of place.

Air Namibia Network: The Airline of wide open spaces, c.1991

A delightful vintage postcard from Air Namibia. Its publication date can only be guessed at, but as the airline rebranded from its elongated crane logo to a more national, flag-based scheme in the late 1990s, and Air Namibia only launched at the country's independence in 1990, perhaps the small text "Windhoek Printers 91" indicates the year of press.

That issue aside, the airline at the time boasted a a Boeing fleet on B737-200s and its B747SP, the performative aspects of which are boasted on the back of the postcard, above a route map showing just six routes from Windhoek, the only one outside of southern Africa being the long stretch to Frankfurt. The text states the B747SP is "used on longhaul international routes" yet the map shows just this one.

Air Namibia Route Map, Summer 2011

The facing page of yesterday's schedule as it appears in Flamingo magazine, Air Namibia's in-flight literature, shows a stately map of the airline's full network. The page features not one but two compasses for the proper atmosphere or exploration, while the bottom of the page recommends booking online. Frankfurt's arrow is labelled with a repeat of the main title, beckoning with its "beyond," while Durban, a recent destination, is gone from the Indian Ocean coast.

Air Namibia Schedule, Summer 2011

The complete schedule of Air Namibia published in its in-flight magazine, Flamingo, in the summer of 2011, starts with domestic routes on board is Embraer 135, extending to its regional routes to various Southern African capitals with A319 and B737 aircraft, which also serve more distant Accra, and finishing with its flagship Airbus A340 flights from Windhoek to Frankfurt. 

Air Namibia Network, October 2011

An indigo-violet map showing Air Namibia's major routes, most notable for its far stretches to Accra and Frankfurt, but also its important links to South Africa: Cape Town, Durban, and of course Johannesburg, but also to neighboring capitals Harare, Lusaka, Gaborone, and Luanda. Regional tourism centers, most notably Victoria Falls and Maun, gateway to Botswana's Okavango Delta, are also covered.

Namibian airports with international operations are included here, such as Walvis Bay's link to Cape Town (WVB); Mpacha Airport at Katima Mulilo in the Caprivi Strip (MPA); and Rundu Airport in the Kavango region (NDU). Ondongwa Airport (OND) is also shown, although with only its tiny connection to Windhoek.

Air Namibia: Windhoek-Accra Weekly Schedule, Autumn 2011

Air Namibia has in the last year wisely pursued a market opportunity between Western and Southern Africa by providing a daily connection between Accra and Windhoek, with onward service to Johannesburg and other destinations, competing head-on with South African Airways on the intra-African link. The airline has made a major marketing push in Accra to promote the route, producing helpful literature such as the timetable above and blanketing the city with billboards, such as the below:

Accra Kotoka Airport Monday Evening Departures, November 2011

Continuing from the previous post, the Monday evening departures table shows a host of intercontinental carriers leaving Accra for distant destinations in Europe and elsewhere. This includes both Kotoka's traditional standbys, KLM to Amsterdam and British Airways to London, as well as new-comers such as Emirates to Dubai at 5:30, Turkish Airlines to Istanbul, United Airlines to Washington Dulles, TAP to Lisbon, and Afriqiyah Airways to Tripoli.

Also seen here are southern hemispheric services, specifically South African Airways non-stop to Johannesburg and Air Namibia to Jo'berg via Windhoek. There are only a handful of regional departures to Lagos in the late afternoon as well as an Air Ivoire flight at 8PM to Lomé.

Various International Destinations from Frankfurt, Summer 2011

Excerpts from the Summer 2011 Timetable published by Frankfurt International Airport, showing Lufthansa's multiweekly nonstops to sub-Saharan Africa, such as Abuja, Accra, Addis Ababa, Lagos, Libreville, and Luanda; as well as Ethiopian's 5-times weekly to Addis and Air Namibia's all-but-Wednesday nonstop to Windhoek; Condor Flugdienst's once-weekly scheduled charters to Arusha, Tanzania's Kilimanjaro International and Agadir in Morocco; Sun Express and Turkish Airlines leisure flights to Adana; Lufthansa and Croatia Airlines flights to Zagreb, and Air Berlin's Friday flight to Zakynthos in Greece.

Intercontinental Destinations from Munich, Summer 2011

Munich's gorgeous and efficient airport may not be a first-tier European gateway, nonetheless its status as a Lufthansa "fortress hub," second only to Frankfurt, and the presence of a number of international airlines, provides Bavaria connections with five continents, with an increasing list of global carriers from the Middle East, Russia, and East Asia adding to the scope of Munich's reach. The Eastern portion of this map will be detailed in the next post.

Wealthy Bavaria is also linked directly with several leisure destinations, including the Maldives and Mombasa, and the Namibian capital, Windhoek, which to this day retains one of the largest German-speaking communities in Africa.

TAAG Angolan Airlines: The African Routes, 2011

While TAAG serves several underserved African cities, particularly Bangui and Sao Tome, there are a number of gaps in its African network to be filled in, including several of the continent's most important air hubs, namely Nairobi, Lagos, Addis Ababa, Accra, Entebbe, Cairo and Dakar. Tiny Lusophone Bissau would also be a possible addition.

Luanda has the potential to be a conduit for traffic between Western and Southern Africa, funneling West Africans into the continent's southern cone. But this has yet to materialize. Presumably, TAAG functions on premium origin and destination traffic to fuel its booming economy.

The previous post shows TAAG's global network. The following post details TAAG's domestic services.

UTA French Airlines: Central & Southern Africa Destinations

Another detail from UTA's worldwide map from 1989, part of Flickr user caribb's collection. Even thought France didn't have any colonies in the southern half of the continent, and there isn't a francophone city between Kinshasa and Antananarivo, UTA flew to a number of southern African capitals where no French airline flies today. Libreville, Brazzaville, Kinshasa are no surprise (and are still connected to Paris), and Luanda and Johannesburg have economic reasons for still being served from CDG, but anglophone Lilongwe, Lusaka, Gaborone, Windhoek and lusophone Maputo are surprising.

Timetablist would like to thank caribb (Doug from Montreal) for generously allowing the reuse of these images under creative commons license terms.