Nigeria Airways, May 1979, 2 of 2: Detail of Domestic Network

A detail of the previous post, shown the domestic network of Nigeria Airways in May 1979; a barbell system with poles at Lagos in the south and Kano in the north. 

Nigeria Airways: The Right Connections for Nigeria and West Africa, May 1979 (1 of 2)

Having now extensively reviewed the myriad airlines of contemporary and recent Nigeria, this New Year's Day we look back almost forty years to the era of the Winged Elephant, when the green-striped jets of Nigeria Airways ruled the skies.

Similar to previous features on The Timetablist, the national carrier was seeking the discerning eye of the Air Transport World reader in May, 1979, boasting of its "luxurious DC10," to "the nerve center of business in Africa," Lagos, but also throughout West Africa, as is helpfully shown in the route map at lower left.

What is today an aviation market arranged around the twin poles of Lagos and Abuja was, before Abuja was realized, organized between the southern hub of Lagos and the northern gateway of Kano, from whence intercontinental flights crossed the Sahara to European metropoles, including Rome and Amsterdam, but likewise eastward to the Middle East; the Kano—Jeddah link was recently revived but in those days the operation had the somewhat unusual final termination point of Karachi. A sort of code share, presumably on Egyptair, linked Cairo—Athens. Note also the cross-border link from Kano to Niamey, Niger. 

There was a second non-stop to London from Lagos, but mostly this was the start of the coastal routes along West Africa's edge, Cotonou—Lomé—Accra—Abidjan—Monrovia, where the widebody headed nonstop for New York JFK, while the smaller elements of the fleet linked Freetown—Banjul—Dakar and back in a minihub. There was a nonstop from Lagos to Douala, and also a connection to southeastern Calabar, as well as flights to Libreville and Nairobi. 

Nigeria Airways: Domestic Network, November 1981

The most obvious difference in juxtaposing the route map of Nigeria Airways in 1981 with Arik Air in 2012 is the centralization around hubs that has taken place in those decades. Here, the state carrier offered a diversity of linkages between major cities, with an array of flights connecting Kano, Jos, Enugu, Benin City and Kaduna. Even Yola and Markurdi have multiple options (although as with all route networks, the frequency of such flights is not clear).

Aside from the intricacy of this web,  the complete absence of Abuja is obvious. Today, this myriad span of domestic flights has been rationalized around a two-hub system split between Lagos and Abuja. Although airlines worldwide have consolidated into hub-and-spoke systems, it is tempting to see this transition as an allegory for the fate of the federal state and Nigerian society in these ensuing years.

As noted previously, Kano's status as a northern hub and intercontinental gateway has been erased. Note that the Ibadan-Benin City-Calabar service was suspended at the time.

See the previous post for Nigeria Airways's international network from 1981.

Nigeria Airways: International Network, November 1981

In looking from Arik Air's route map from October back to Virgin Nigeria's system from 2009, we can stretch back almost thirty-two years to this representation of the Nigeria Airways network of November 1981, as seen in the old trade publication, Flight International.

There are many similarities, particularly the nearly-identical route line hugging the West African coast to Dakar with a mini-hub at Monrovia. Intercontinentally, there are familiar routes to London and New York.

What is more remarkable, however are the many differences: Long-haul flights to Amsterdam, Rome, and Jeddah, all remarkably emanating out of Kano, with an apparent non-stop to London from Port Harcourt. There is also a trans-African route from Lagos to Calabar to Douala, crossing the heart of the continent to Nairobi, and a link to Libreville from Calabar and Port Harcourt as well. Lastly, a northern flight to Niamey originates in Kano and stops in the sultanate of Sokoto before crossing the border.

Many of these routes no longer exist. Part of this is the decline of Kano as an intercontinental airport, a topic recurring in Timetablist back to its most ancient archives, but is most startling in this earlier Nigeria Airways route map of 1973, when the majority of Nigeria Airway's European routes departed from Kano.  Like many deregulated systems, Nigeria's air services have consolidated, dropping secondary destinations and service from non-hub cities.

The next post will detail the domestic network. 

Nigeria Airways: International Routes, November 1973

Having just recently featured Nigeria Airways in its vintage glory, it is particularly pleasing to highlight this second gem from the incredible collection of Flickr user caribb. This colorful, elephantine brochure cover reveals an entirely straightforward map of the Nigeria Airways international network inside. What is notable here is firstly the railroad-like West African leg, a spine connecting the Anglophone capitals, with a miniature hub at Monrovia. This service also touches Abidjan and Dakar, from whence the flying pachyderm stretches across the Atlantic to New York.

A second remarkable aspect is the dense web of trans-Saharan routes fanning out from Kano, reaching eight European capitals as well as Beirut, far more service than that ancient city enjoys today, a phenomenon that has been previously discussed. It is not possible to fly non-stop from many of these cities, such as Madrid, to Nigeria at present, and it is curious to contemplate having to travel from Lagos to Brussels, Amsterdam, Frankfurt or Zürich via Kano.

Timetablist will be dedicating an intermediate period going forward to highlight some of the incredible finds of caribb's collection. Timetablist would like to thank Doug from Montreal for allowing the reuse of these images under creative commons.

Nigeria Airways: Detail of the Domestic and Regional Network, April 1966

Still Nigeria Airways, still all pink. The state airways corporation operated a zig-zaging domestic network, shown here as an inset of the previous post from April 1966.

Note how, in a wonderfully curious gesture, an arrow points northeast from Maiduguri, promoted as a gateway to the Middle and Far East. The North-Eastern State, gateway to Baghdad and Hong Kong. Today, Maiduguri has barely a handful of weekly domestic flights.

Kano, Nigeria's oldest airport, was the starting gate of the northern routes to Europe for both Nigeria Airways and other airlines, and at least today still has intercontinental attention from KLM.

Nigeria Airways: Systemwide Network, April 1966

Pink was chosen to capture the essence of the fleet of the wingéd elephant's global reach in this delicious timetable from April 1966, sporting a roseate VC-10 flagship on its cover, with the stout pachydermian pegasus at lower left.

Regionally, Nigeria Airways plied a leg southeast to Douala and Leopoldville, and a littoral run west from Lagos, skipping only Conakry to reach Dakar, from whence it lept across the Atlantic to New York.

A northern web branches out from the Sahelian capital of Kano flew to Rome--curious how prominent this city was on the Europe-Africa networks--distance was perhaps a factor. Within Europe, unexpectedly the lines land at Rome, Frankfurt and Barcelona. Somewhat odd choices--perhaps distance was still a consideration. And London, naturally, London. A separate premier line from Lagos to London non-stop, which the map underscores. Abuja, of course, has yet to exist. The inset detail of the domestic network is examined in the next post.

The example featured in this post is another gem of the outstanding collection of Björn Larsson, part of the encyclopedic archive at Timetable Images. Thank you to Larsson and the rest of the Timetable Images team for their work and reproduction courtesies.