Sunday, September 30, 2012

Air Rarotonga Route Map, 2009


This lovely and dynamic graphic is still available on Air Raro's website, although the page hasn't been updated since 2009. Perhaps nothing has changed in this island paradise, an idyllic archipelago whose atolls from Rarotonga to Pukapuka are strung together by the pastel-colored prop planes of its flag carrier. The long flight to Papeete is handled by Air Tahiti, as noted, while connections to New Zealand and elsewhere must be handled by other carriers.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Air Vanuatu Network, 2011


Following the previous post, this later, glossier map of Air Vanuatu shows a smaller airline, with no apparent service to Fiji or the Solomon Islands, but the same network to New Caledonia, New Zealand, and New South Wales. The flight from Espiritu Santo to Brisbane has endured. Auckland is for some reason misplaced at the center of the country.

Air Vanuatu Network, August 2009


The entire expanse of Air Vanuatu's reach, from the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia and Fiji, as well as New Zealand and the main cities of Australia, the country's main economic patrons. This includes a nonstop from Espiritu Santo Island to Brisbane.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Polynesian Airlines Network, c.2001


A rainbow-colored route map for Polynesian Airlines from about ten years ago, via the wonderfully strange, half-dormant website, World of Islands. Its not explicitly clear what the dotted lines refer to, but perhaps Air Pacific or other carriers operated these intra-Antipode routes on Polynesian's behalf.

At the time, Polynesian, founded in 1959 and one of the dominant South Pacific carriers, ran a very prestigious Apia-Honolulu-Los Angeles service, which reportedly bankrupted the company. Sadly, today the airline is relegated to domestic service as Virgin Samoa (formerly Polynesian Blue) runs long-haul flights to Australia and New Zealand. The only service northwards is to Honolulu on Air Pacific, the Fijian carrier.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Scheduled Passenger Routes from Hawaii, 1971: West of the Dateline


Examining the left-hand side of the same map from the previous post, a State Department of Transportation map from 1971-2. There are many flights between Hawaii and Australia, connecting nonstop from Honolulu to Brisbane and Sydney, as well as Auckland, while connecting New Caledonia and Fiji along the way and with Melbourne as an onward destination. The  trans-Micronesia service is shown in special green, dipping down to Nauru, with a major west Pacific base at Guam, which connects onward to Manila, Hong Kong, and Taipei. Tokyo and Okinawa are served non-stop.

Its somewhat difficult to discern which routes certain airlines, listed above, served at the time, especially BOAC and VARIG; Pan Am likely served many of these flights.

Scheduled Passenger Routes from Hawaii, 1971: East of the Dateline


A fun artifact from the State Department of Transportation (of Hawaii, presumably) studying the transocean air links of the archipelago. Most flights are indeed from Honolulu. This first post tags the eastbound services to the US West Coast and Vancouver, to Alaska due north, and across to Mexico, as well as inter-Polynesian flights to Tahiti and Samoa. The flights to Acapulco in particular are interesting, as no long-haul flights exist from this fading resort town today.

The only drawback of this representation is it leads the reader to guess which of the airlines listed in box at upper left serve which routes. Some are easy to discern. Several others, such as Western Airlines, TWA, and UTA, no longer fly anywhere.

The next post will detail the westbound flights to Micronesia, Melanesia, Australia, and Asia.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Hawaiian Airlines Routes, 1990


Just three years after the last post, this next, much more muted feature from fabulous Departed Flights shows Hawaiian Airlines having dropped Anchorage and Portland, but otherwise expanded dramatically across the Pacific, reaching Australia and New Zealand while also adding a Polynesian fan of Tahiti and the Cook Islands, along with Guam in Micronesia. Sadly today, most of these exotic island destinations are gone, with the airline only resuming Sydney service and only next year returning to Auckland, and still serving Pago Pago and Papeete

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Hawaiian Airlines Route Map, 1987


Yet another delight from Departed Flights, this wonderfully-vintage Hawaiian Airlines route map from 1987, showing the small airline bridging the Pacific from Anchorage to Apia, and interesting mix of ferrying West Coast vacationers to the islands, interlinking the archipelago state, and linking the tiny isles of Polynesia with Honolulu, the central Pacific metropolis. Note that most of the Hawaiian destinations are labeled by the islands, not the airports.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

America West Airlines: Schedule from Honolulu, December 1991


A page from America West's late 1991 timetable, detailing the connections out of Honolulu, the available non-stops being via B747 to either Nagoya or Phoenix. It seems that the other mainland connection, to Las Vegas, would be discontinued in early 1992. Connections to West Coast destinations such as Oakland and Portland, as well as far distant New York (both JFK and Newark) as well as several Midwestern cities are shown also, with Moline, Illinois being farther away from Hawaii than Japan.

Friday, September 21, 2012

America West Airlines Network, December 1991


Another vintage gem from the now-deserted Departed Flights blog: America West Airlines System Route Map from December, 1991, at the extent of the airline's independence, with its Pony Express-styled typography but with a mature presence from Boston to Burbank and a single, exotic pan-Pacific hop from its Las Vegas hub and Phoenix fortress to Honolulu and on to Nagoya, Japan. Today, America West has adopted the styling of its take-over target USAirways, and does not fly to Asia.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Mohawk Airlines Network, August 1991


From the delightful Departed Flights blog, which is sadly itself departed and apparently defunct, is this rare route map of Mohawk Air Lines from August 1991. Even a decade after deregulation, its fascinating to see how regionally-limited some airlines were.

A crudely-drawn map of the northeastern United States, with a blunted Maryland and only partial Virginia and West Virginia, shows a system extending only from Boston to Buffalo. In between, short-hop connections between Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Albany, and Binghamton, connect to La Guardia, Hartford, and Boston-Logan. These upstate tier cities could only dream to have the hub status they once enjoyed here: most of these trips are now made by the New York Thruway, not via air.  Atlantic City lies outside Mohawk's orbit, a distant dream.

Special Thanks to the excellent Departed Flights blog for access to its collection. 

Monday, September 17, 2012

Boston Logan International Departures, April 2008


The evening departure board for the International Terminal E at Boston Logan Airport on Sunday, April 27, 2008. Between 6:20 an 9:40pm, there were ten flights to eight European cities on on eight airlines. Although only mid-Spring, Northwest Airlines was offering its two departures to Amsterdam Schiphol, as it still does on a summer schedule (although today it is Delta out of Terminal A). Northwest operated all its flights out of Terminal E, which is why Indianapolis and Detroit are shown during the 19:00 hour.

London is by far Logan's busiest overseas connection: here are two flights on British Airways and Virgin Atlantic to Heathrow, while over at Terminal B an American Airlines flight was also preparing to follow. Aer Lingus's departures to both sides of the Emerald Isle leave one after the other, the second stopping in Shannon. Other European flag carriers include Lufthansa to Munich, Iberia to Madrid, SWISS to Zurich, and Icelandair to Reykjavík, which lands at Keflavík International in a few short hours.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Frankfurt Airport Departures, August 2012


Just twenty minutes of mid-weekday activity at Frankfurt Airport in late August 2012, showing departures (mostly of Lufthansa, naturally) as near as Salzburg and as far away as Kuala Lumpur on Malaysia Airlines and Charlotte on USAirways.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Swissair: The European Network, c.1951


The routes of Swissair, "to everywhere" only reached as far as Iraq, New York, Spain and Denmark in 1951.

Friday, September 14, 2012

Air Malta: Routes Serviced, April-October 2011


A table of Air Malta weekly flights, showing 34 airports Malta's flag carrier serves on its own each week in the summer, and also 12 airports served by one of several partner airlines such as bmi, Brussels Airlines and Etihad. The airline serves a large number of cities in both Italy and Germany (including Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hanover, and Stuttgart), connecting several cities from each country every day to the Mediterranean island. There are no services to anywhere in nearby North Africa, however.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Aegean Airlines: The Eastern Network, Summer 2012


Continuing from the previous postAegean Airlines' right-hand side from the same map, showing mostly seasonal operations as far distant as St. Petersburg, Tblisi and Kuwait. Its farthest year-round destination seems to be Moscow. Budapest, just at the page's spine, and Istanbul are also connected to Athens, while a mini hub at Larnaca, Cyprus links to Thessaloniki, Athens, and a number the islands, especially the sizable airports at Chania and Heraklion on Crete, with an all-A320 fleet. The only airport in Asia served year-round appears to be Tel Aviv.

Aegean Airlines: The Western European Routes, Summer 2012

The route map of Aegean Airlines, the private Greek carrier that has zoomed from Start-up to Star Alliance member in a matter of years. Solid-lines denote year-round services, mainly from Athens but also to Germany (StuttgartDusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich) from Thessaloniki, while dashed-lines indicate summer service, which includes flights from Heraklion to Paris, Brussels and Munich.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Athens International Airport Departure Board, 10 August 2012


An hour-and-a-half's worth of activity on an August Friday morning at Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport in Athens shows the contemporary extents of service out the Greek capital. Service across the Atlantic to both Toronto and Philadelphia by Air Canada and USAirways respectively, represent the long-haul, although MEA's flight to Beirut, the unusual Armavia's departure for Yerevan, and Cyprus Airways' service to Larnaca illustrate some of the varied services to the Near East that still exist out of Athens. Cyprus also offers its own service to Chania on Crete, while Star Alliance member Aegean Airlines and the still-barely-alive Olympic Air also service the many islands. Air France to Paris and Transavia to Amsterdam round out the next 90 minutes of activity.