Swissair: The African Destinations, Winter 1972

Continuing from yesterday's post, it is somewhat astonishing to consider today that at the height of its reach, Swissair served more cities in Africa than any other external continent (17 African destinations compared to 14 across Asia). Particularly dense are the West African capitals, six airports from Dakar to Douala (the only non-capital besides Johannesburg on the map). Past Cameroon, francophone Libreville and Kinshasa are also connected, whereas in East Africa, Anglophone Nairobi and Dar Es Salaam are linked via formerly-British Khartoum.

To match the astonishment of the extent of the Swissair network in the early 1970s is to note that today, the successor Swiss International Air Lines only flies to Johannesburg and Dar Es Salaam.

Special thanks again to Flickr user caribb (Doug from Montreal) for allowing his collection to be featured here. 

Swissair: The Intercontinental Routes, Winter 1972

The five-continent network of d stretched from Santiago to Singapore, Montreal to Manila. Four cities in North America, four in South America, three in South Asia, and five in East Asia were connected with what here is simply denoted as "Switzerland" sitting at the center of Europe, whether Zürich or Geneva is not specified. The only other European cities marked are Athens and Istanbul. A denser array in the Near East: Ankara, Baghdad, Beirut, Cairo, Damascus, Nicosia, Tehran, and Tel-Aviv.

A special thanks to Flickr user caribb (Doug from Montreal) for the fair-use rights.

The particularly-strong African network will be featured in the following post. 

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.

Swissair: Zürich-Dakar-Bamako, 1996

A pair of fanciful envelopes celebrating the inaugural roundtrip of Swissair's Zürich-Dakar-Bamako and return service, in association with its then-sister carrier, Sabena. The post details the aircraft as a snub-nosed A310-322 wide body, although the only decor recalls the craft of Sahelien Africa. Swiss International Air Lines does not serve West Africa any longer, although Sabena's successor, Brussels Airlines, serves Dakar, Bamako, and a dozen other West African cities.

Swissair: Genéve-Douala, April 1976

It isn't clear if this route is different than the Zürich-Douala route, which was launched in November of the same year, and memorialized on a first day cover which was featured on Timetablist some years ago. The dates are slightly different, and as are the envelopes-- here a bird mask juts out across the white space, its concentric circles almost reminiscent of an air force insignia. Despite coming from a Francophone canton to a French-speaking country, the address spells Kamerun in the German style. United Nations postage and cancellation marks fill out the upper-right.

Swissair: Zürich-Geneva-Lagos-Accra, 1974

Two first-day covers which differ only slightly, having identical layouts, graphics, and cancellation stamps, but seeming to emphasize slightly different portions of the same route, Swissair's new service from Zürich to Geneva, connecting Switzerland to Lagos and finally Accra.

The first envelope celebrates the Genève - Accra service, the second Genève - Lagos, with the description to the right of the profiled antelope giving no mention to Accra.

Swissair's 21st century successor, Swiss International Air Lines, flew to Accra for a time, but currently does not serve West Africa at all.

Air Gabon: Systemwide Timetable, 1990

Air Gabon is another carrier that has recently seen extensive attention on timetablist, only to be have this further article, a delightful sample from Flickr user caribb's amazing collection, illuminate its history further. This schedule shows, in excellent detail, Air Gabon's systemwide operations, divided into three tables: Europe, West Africa and Central Africa.

The top list shows the services from Gabon to the metropole, a rotation of thrice-weekly flights, all terminating at Charles de Gaulle, but stopping in variously Marseille, Nice or Rome along the way.

The second box lists the northwesterly runs from Libreville, operated with either Fokker F-100 or Boeing B737 jets, once-weekly to Cotonou; twice-weekly to Abidjan via Lagos, extending on Mondays to Dakar; Douala and onward to Lomé on Wednesday; and Lomé-Abidjan on Saturday.

The third table shows the central and southern network. Shown here once weekly to Pointe-Noire, a F-28 flight to Bangui, and a Sunday flight to Douala only. There is a late-evening DC-10 to Kinshasa, co-listed with a Swissair flight number-- an earlier time, Swissair was known to fly to Zaïre, as has been shown in a previous post.

There is also an early morning B747 to Luanda--presumably a continuation of the Paris-Marseille-Libreville flight, with a TAAG Angola Airlines flight number listed. These joint ventures are noted at the bottom of the leaflet, but details on just which carrier's craft ran the service is not fully provided.

It is especially curious that Gabon's second city and petrolhub, Port-Gentil, is absent from the roster, as are other likely destinations such as Brazzaville, Malabo, and Yaounde.

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 caribb (Doug from Montreal) for generously allowing the reuse of these images under creative commons license terms.

Swissair: Zurich-Kinshasa, 1973

Swissair always had extensive routes across Africa. This envelope, although certainly commemorative, does not indicate whether this date was particularly important for the route to Zaïre, which is helpfully outlined on the map.

Swissair/Air Afrique: Geneva-Monrovia, 1977

This is a somewhat confusing envelope. Is Air Afrique or Swissair metal doing the work? This is 1977, 12 years after yesterday's inaugural flight. The printing is at least specific when it comes to the aircraft: a DC-10-30 (which was in both airlines' fleets) is announced at top and glides across the page.

Swissair: Zurich-Monrovia, 1965

There are absolutely no giraffes in Liberia, nor were there in 1965, but that did not deter the Swiss from celebrating the first flight to Monrovia with a Serengeti scene. No information on routing or aircraft. The purple architectural stamp at center may depict the post office in Monrovia, which still stands.

Swissair: Zurich-Philadelphia, August 1990

Like many aspects of Philadelphia's recent history, its airport's prominence as an international gateway has had its ups and downs. Today it has myriad options thanks to USAirways, which covers nearly 20 destinations non-stop, from Barcelona to Tel Aviv. Planespotters would have been disappointed by last year's switch of the CDG run from Air France to Delta, leaving British Airways and Lufthansa as the only European carriers to serve the enormous terminal at Philly. Swissair's service to Zürich did not last the airline's turbulent demise and rebirth as SWISS, although Koten Airport is still connected to PHL as one of USAirway's non-stops.

Swissair: Geneva-Harare

A first-day cover from 6 August, 1982, when a Swiss DC-8 first departed Geneva for Harare via Athens only, if the typewriting at the top of the envelope is reliable. By the way, looks like this particular article made a roundtrip?! Note the return to sender notice.

Swissair: Geneva-Monrovia, 1977 & 1986

Certifiable evidence that Swissair joined KLM, SAS, and Sabena in service of Monrovia Robertsfield. The first flight cover celebrates an inaugural Geneva-Abidjan-Monrovia service, launched in 1977 with a DC-10, and the second flight cover shows a new routing and aircraft, an A310 service via Dakar commencing in February 1986.

Swissair: Zürich-Douala, November 1976

Douala, commercial capital of Cameroon, is one Swissair destination that Swiss International Air Lines still serves from Zürich. Graceful grassland gazelles in a monochrome brown print mark the occasion.

Swissair: Geneva-Dakar-Bamako (with Sabena)

A much more recent first-day cover than most of the rest of the collection, this 1996 first-day cover from Swissair's launch, in cooperation with Sabena, of Geneva-Dakar-Bamako service. The route didn't last long, as both airlines ignominiously shut down in 2001, and Swiss International Air Lines has not returned to Dakar (although Brussels Airlines continues to serve Senegal from Belgium).