Malev: Budapest-Wien-München, Budapest-Zürich, c.1964

 

Starting off the Timetablist's twelfth year where we left off in December: in Europe of the mid-20th century, here moving a bit further east at one of a series gorgeous illustrated postcards from Malév Hungarian Airlines, which recall similar articles that have been posted here in the past. 

Like several eastern-European airlines, Malév flew over the iron curtain to link to its regional neighbors; here shown are two routes which run to nearby Vienna; one which continues on to Munich. The other alternatively turns around in a triangle formation at Zürich, which appears to rotate via Konstanz or possibly Friedrichshafen. Only the main airports: Ferihegy (Budapest), Schwechat (Vienna), the old Riem (of Munich, closed in 1992), and Kloten (Zürich) are demarcated by yellow airfield logographs. 

Despite the other delightful pictograms of the image, showing the cathedrals, castles and other landmarks of several of the cities, as a cartographic conveyance of information, the postcard fails to make clear just which cities are served on each route and which are passed over. It appears that between Budapest and Vienna there is a turn at Győr; after Vienna, the Munich route seems to stopover in Linz. Intriguingly, it seems as though the Zürich route, although avoiding Vienna, still lands in Österreich, as it splits westward at the small city of Brück an der Leitha across the Austrian border (of course making its Timetablist debut here). The flight path then makes a gentle turn at Salzburg, which is denoted by a coin-like cartouche of Mozart himself.