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.

Interflug Timetable, Winter 1975-76, Part 1

The unscheduled discovery of this Interflug memorial website has gotten us sidetracked in reviewing its treasures. This post celebrates the first half of a photocopy-palletted schedule from November 1975 to March 1976 for routes within Europe and the Middle East, as well as the single transatlantic route, the historically curious twice-weekly Berlin—Gander—Havana service, which probably didn't ferry the freezing Newfoundlanders to sunny Cuba on the way. 

Other flights follow from previously-posted material of earlier years: one of the Iron Curtain spines in the latticework, the Berlin—Leipzig—Erfurt—Budapest—Tirana operation is shown at top, and below it one-off flights to the free world: Milan, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Vienna. Shown below is the all-important to Moscow and Leningrad. The largest box shows four weekly operations to the Near East: to Cairo, to Beirut, and Damascus—Baghdad. 

The next post shows the remaining pages of the schedule. 

Interflug Route Network, 1970

Double-checking some dates and details from the last post sent Timetablist to this website, with a treasure-trove of Interfluginalia, including this gracefully fluid route map, as the East German state carrier gently jets across the Second and Third Worlds.

The Warsaw pact capitals are well represented, such as Warsaw itself, but also including the smaller cities such as Tirana and Zagreb. Past the Iron Curtain, some non-aligned and socialist states of the Arab world are served, such as the Nicosia-Damascus-Baghdad route and the Cairo-Khartoum connection. The dashed lines and double-M metro sign perhaps indicate regional rail connections; secondary airports of the DDR, namely Dresden and Erfurt, are connected to Budapest, from whence it appears, reading the threading of the route lines correctly, that flights continue onward on the famous Algiers-Bamako-Conakry-Freetown journey. Almost everything else is out of Schönefeld.

Interflug: Berlin-Conakry, November 1966

It seems fitting to conclude this month's coverage of the recent state of affairs in Berlin to feature this vintage item, which recalls the postings of the earliest days of the Timetablist, far back in 2009. A first day cover from the DDR post celebrating the socialist Germany's reach to the verdant shores of West Africa, feverish with post-colonial realignment. As was shown in some of the first Timetablist posts, Interflug carried the Marxist dream far into equatorial Africa at the roaring clip of its sleek, quad-propulsion IL-62 jets on a variety of bi-weekly Schönefeld—Algiers—Bamako—Conakry—Freetown arrangements, although the above launch was more likely on the four-prop IL-18.

Interflug: Berlin-Freetown

Earlier than its 1972 celebration of jet service to West Africa is this November 1969 inaugural Freetown flight, although its not clear just what distinguishes the two events or what aircraft might have been in use, although with only the origin and destination listed, it suggests non-stop service. A handsome gazelle leaps gracefully across the cancellation stamp.

Interflug: Berlin-Singapore

Very late in its life, Interflug changed course radically, utilizing Western Airbus aircraft and stretching farther in search of relevance and revenue, such as this July 1989 launch to Singapore. Interflug would be liquidated by Lufthansa less than two years later. Apparently not enough East Berliners headed to Raffles.

Interflug: Berlin-Khartoum

Older and more drab than the other Interflug first-day covers, this one from 1969 celebrated the East German carrier reaching Khartoum, Sudan in 1969. It is also a bit curious that the post is not addressed to Interflug's office or agent in Khartoum, as is tradition with such first-flight postages.

Interflug: Berlin-Algier-Freetown-Conakry

Interflug had a variety of African Routes, but one of the most consistent seems to be its route to Freetown and Conakry, which went via Algier when it first debuted in 1972 with an IL-62.

Interflug: Berlin-Algiers-Lagos-Luanda-Maputo

Interflug was a dedicated, if unlikely, visitor to the African continent. Routings varied over time, and can definitely be more correlated to political affiliation than connection by commerce. The otherwise hermitic East Germans steered their flagship IL-62s far and wide, in this case connecting Berlin to Algiers, Lagos, reaching communist Luanda and finally Socialist Maputo in 1979.

Interflug: The African Routes, c. 1970

These two pages from an Interflug route map show its two African Routes: Berlin-Algiers-Bamako-Conakry-Freetown and Cairo-Khartoum-Dar Es Salaam. Also shown is a Near-Eastern extension to Nicosia-Beirut-Damascus-Baghdad. Note the unusual maneuvers shown over the Italian peninsula-- its somewhat difficult to understand just where the aircraft landed on their way across the Mediterranean, but Rome is not shown in red so was apparently only a radar station.