Icelandair: Your way to Norway, 2011

Continuing to look at Icelandic air carriers in the 21st century, here is a magazine advert for Icelandair, specifically highlighting the airline's service to four Norwegian airports: Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger, and Trondheim. The top of the page lists, in no particular order, Icelandair's 19 other European destinations from Glasgow to Alicante. That number has today nearly doubled above 35 cities, counting a number of seasonal services. 

Aviogenex System Route Map, c.1989

An undated route map, found in a dusty display case on the upper level of the Aeronautical Museum of Yugoslavia on the grounds of Aerodrom Nikola Tesla in Belgrade, Serbia. A conventional map of Europa is overlaid with the red lines of the complete Aviogenex system during the Yugoslavian airline's prime. Although a subsidiary of the Belgrade-based Generalexport conglomerate (as the map prominently notes at the bottom), the leisure airline's impressive array of coverage emanated out of the Croatian coast, with the largest bases at Pula in Istria, and Split and Dubrovnik in Dalmatia, marked by large red bullseyes around their place names. Other large stations at Zadar and inland at Zagreb and Ljubljana and what looks to be Titograd (today Podgorica, Montenegro).

From here, the red-striped Aviogenex jets plunged further south across the Mediterranean from Algiers to Benghazi to Beirut. A single branch outward from Zagreb splays outward and off the map (to what is probably Aqaba, Jordan) and turns northeastward to spread to Leningrad, Helsinki, and Oslo.

Aviogenex was even more impressive in northwestern Europe, with intense coverage of Germany, France and especially the British Isles. So dense was this network that it demanded a unique cartographic feature of this map, as Aviogenex's home hubs in the Balkans had to been repeated at the mouth of the English Channel, underneath Ireland, to adequately show the web of connections to 16 cities. These included not just Birmingham and Leeds (as with the rest of the map rendered in Croatian Latin script, here spelled "Lidz") but many smaller airports such as Cardiff, Bristol, Bournemouth and Norwich. Perhaps most intriguing is what appears to be Kirkwall Airport in the Orkney Islands, which even today in the great Thomas Cook package tour era of cheap charters is not connected to the Canaries or Balearics, much less Montenegro.

This is reflective of the enormous popularity of Yugoslavia as a British tourism destination in the 1980s, when it was even more popular than Spain and Yugotours was one of the UK's most popular tour agencies, which all declined with the 1990s break-up and war. While Aviogenex was not a victim of this catastrophe, it was shadow of its former self and limped along until 2015, meeting its demise just before the latest explosion in Adriatic leisure aviation.

Qatar Airways Route Network, November 2016: Europe

Like it's arch-rival Emirates, Qatar Airways blankets Europe with over two-dozen non-stops from Doha, although many of these are with its narrow-body A320 aircraft, the airline also intersperses its A330, B777, and B787 widebodies into these operations. Paris and London also see Qatar's double-decker A380 superjumbos. Qatar serves a number of cities which seldom see intercontinental flights, especially in southeastern Europe and the Balkans: Sarajevo and Skopje in particular. 

SAS: Oslo-Newark Launch, March 2011

Continuing to look at SAS, this magazine page advert announced daily service from Oslo to Newark commencing on 28 March 2011, with an A330. The Scandinavian air confederation has a unique history with the New Jersey airport, having moved all its New York-area operations there in 1989-1990 as part of its partnership with—and ownership stake in— Continental Airlines, one of the early precursors to today's global alliance format, although it seems that in those days the transatlantic flights were only to Copenhagen and Stockholm. Those cities are listed here, along with Bergen, Stavanger, and Helsinki, somewhat curiously, in that Finland is not a member of the SAS system.

Finnair: The Shortcut to 11 Cities in Asia, 2012

As our first post of the month featured an unusual route between easternmost Europe and China, this item which has been in our filebox for a few years seems most relevant. Finnair has over the last decade remade itself as a premier airline between Europe and Asia, especially China, avoiding competing on the trans-Atlantic competition, where its northeasternmost position was a disadvantage, and playing up the strength of Helsinki's near-polar location the long-haul routes follow flow across the continent efficiently. 

Finnair has had a lot of success with this strategy, even profiting from some of the world's more random long-haul routings from what is essentially a very small airport at Vantaa to cities such as Nagoya and Chongqing, which was the newest destination on this map. Since this magazine advert, Finnair has expanded into China further, reintroducing Guangzhou and adding Xi'an, as well as serve to Ho Chi Minh City, although Hanoi was less successful. Much of this service is also apparently seasonal. 

This advert's smooth whites and greys almost feel polar, positioning the globe in such a way that the 11 trans-Asian routes flow over its curvature. Its unclear exactly what the European routes are, as they are not labeled, but the concept of Helsinki as a transit hub is made quite clear. A single line tucks behind the planet, indicate Finnair's few North American routes, which currently consist of New York and Miami and seasonal service to Chicago, but will soon include San Francisco. Boston, Ft. Lauderdale, Seattle, Toronto and Montreal are among those cities that didn't work out. 

ČSA Czechoslovak Airlines Route Map, c.1975: Detail of the Bratislava Hub

Continuing to view the details of the Czechoslovak Airlines route map from the 1970s, the upper-right of the pinwheel shows the airline's secondary operation at Bratislava, the Slovak capital. Prague dominated not only the "OK Network" but also nearly every other aspect of Czechoslovak public sphere, yet the expansive ČSA system granted Bratislava with an interesting variety of connections: to nearby Poprad-Tatry, via Bourgas, and a half dozen other Eastern Bloc capitals. Also Beirut and  Kuwait, rather randomly.

Cartographically, what's curious is that these destinations were all printed a second time to show a shower of routes springing forth from Bratislava. Kuwait, Sofia, Bucharest and Beirut are all served from Prague and shown elsewhere on the map, although more at 5 o'clock which might have made the graphics a bit convoluted. Stranger are Moscow, Kiev, and Leningrad, whose links to Prague are directly adjacent to the Bratislava point, as seen here.

Warsaw and Berlin-Helsinki (here weirdly rendered as Helsink) are at high noon, from Prague.

Interflug: Winter Timetable, 1975-76, Part 2

Continuing from the last post, more facsimile fun from the back pages of the Interflug timetable for November 1975 to March 1976. Everything is out of Berlin in this case, and what might be most remarkable are the infrequency of services: barely more than once per day to next door Warsaw, and about four times per week Bucharest and the Yugoslav run to Zagreb—Belgrade as well as Sofia, with once per week to the Black Sea resort town of Varna. On top, the Czechoslovak services show some variety, especially fun is the once weekly Tu-134 landing at the Carpathian ski resort of Poprad-Tatry, a premier feature on the Timetablist. 

Further down the sheet is the long, once-weekly pan Asia flight to North Vietnam via Moscow, Tashkent, Karachi and Dhaka. At lower left is the now well-known Berlin—Algiers—Bamako—Freetown—Conakry twice weekly operations, and at the grand finale is the twice-weekly hop over the Iron Curtain, northward to Helsinki.

Finnair to Asia, March 2013

Few carriers in the world have turned their geographic lemons into lemonade as Finnair, whose dominant strategy in the last 10-15 years has been to look beyond its own tiny home market to become a dominant carrier between Europe and the distant destinations of Asia. This began in the late 1990s with succesful runs to major mixed business/leisure hubs from Tokyo to Hong Kong to Bangkok and Singapore. Today, this includes a daring strategy to link second-tier mainland Chinese cities, such as Chongqing and Xi'an, with little Vantaa Airport in Helsinki, spanning Eurasia by linking European business centers with emerging megacapitals of the Far East, which later this year will include Ho Chi Minh City but was curiously unsuccessful in reaching Guangzhou.

The map above, an eye-catching global map from a web banner ad, shows 13 long-haul non stops. Also helpfully, and perhaps a little hopefully, the map shows the link to New York, suggesting a JFK to Japan journey via Scandinavia.

Ukraine International Airlines Network, c.2010-11

Ukraine International Airlines is not to be confused with Air Ukraine International, which once reached as far as New York but later failed. The above images are from a recent, well-designed card showing its route network across Europe and into Southwest Asia, from Amsterdam to Almaty. Note in particular the connections between the secondary cities of Lvov and Donetsk with Italy, Barcelona, Split, and other Mediterranean leisure destinations.

The next post will show a detail of its western European spread.

Finnair: Worldwide Network, c.2005-08

Finnair's own Baltic blue flavors this smooth polar projection of the airline's routes. The destinations arrayed are quite similar to the last post, although with all three of Finnair's destinations in Japan are shown, and the inclusion of Guangzhou, dating the map to sometime between 2005 and 2008. Miami is the southwestern extent of the network, although it is unlabeled.

Most remarkably similar to the previous post's map is the European segment, which seems to show the same cache of cities: Madrid, Milan, Budapest, Rome, Dublin, and Paris--suggesting some sort of special meaning in terms of intercontinental connections via Vantaa.

Finnair Worldwide Network, c.2009

A global route map of Finnair as viewed from the north pole. The airlines's routes to New York and Miami cross into Arctic airspace, while its long routes to Asia fan out to the right. A small bushel of European short-hauls, seeming tiny by comparison, do not depict all of the airline's regional routes; perhaps this is meant to simply illustrate connections to its long-haul network.

Special thanks to the website airreview.com for the image.

Finnair: The Chinese Routes, 2012

A silvery, polarized projection showing the trans-Asian routes of Finnair from Helsinki to China. Later this year, in May 2012, Finnair will add its fourth destination to its Chinese roster, landing at Jiangbei International Airport in Chongqing, shown above in hot pink.

Its not particularly clear as to why the other cities that Finnair does not connected to Vantaa are shown, as its especially unlikely that plans are in the works for Finnish connections to Kunming or Tibet.

Estonian Air: Summer Timetable & Route Map, 2000

A miniature route-map and schedule for a miniature country and airline: The Summer timetable (Suvine lennuplaan) for Estonian Air in the year 2000. Like the country's flag and the airline's sharp color scheme, shown on a B737 on the cover, the printing is done in Baltic blue and black ink, and featuring what has to be one of the simplest and sharpest bird emblems in all of aviation.

The map shows only north central Europe, as the airline's limits extend only to London, Oslo, St. Petersburg and Kiev. This is made a bit more difficult as Moscow, Minsk and Frankfurt seem a bit out of place to fit the frame of the diminutive graphic. All routes are out of Tallinn, there are no domestic routes nor other Estonian gateways; this corner of the Baltic has extensive ferry (and even at one point helicopter) services, so there is no need to fly across the Helsinki.

Brussels Airport Departure Board #1

As it approaches 11:30am in Brussels, several long-haul flights are closing their doors: United to Chicago (its flight to Washington is ten minutes after noon), and Brussels Airlines SN263 to Ouagadougou and Cotonou.

There are two delayed flights to London at the top of the board, and a Finnair flight to Helsinki is on final call.

There are several Mediterranean destinations up until mid-day: Turkish to Istanbul, Tunisair to Tunis, Alitalia to Rome; just thereafter is an Iberia connection to Madrid, an El Al departure to Tel Aviv and a Royal Air Maroc flight AT683 to Tangier.

SAS: Destinations from Kuala Lumpur, c.1960

Scandinavian Airline System offered Boeing jet services from Bangkok, with Polar Routes from Tokyo to Europe and from Europe to Los Angeles; SAS's worldwide network was reached with 4-times weekly connections from Kuala Lumpur on Thai Airways DC-6B cooperative services, which also linked regional cities from Djakarta to Phnom Penh.

LOT Polish, ca. 1960

At the height of the cold war, LOT IL-62 jets stretched from Baghdad to Benghazi to Brussels, with the flagship route to New York via Shannon, London and Amsterdam. The routes seem even more dense to the west than the east, with a surprising number of North African destinations: Tunis, Algiers, Benghazi, and Cairo.