Malayan Airways c.1960

An attractive greyscale announcement of an adolescent Malayan Airways tiger lines, which at the time extended only as far as Hong Kong, direct with its jet-prop Bristol Britannia (and supercool frill typeface). Decades later Malaysia would crest as one the world's largest carriers, with services like KL-Dubai-Newark and KL-Johannesburg-Cape Town-Buenos Aires.

Czechoslovak Airlines: Service from Cairo, c.1958

An advert from a trade publication for the shipping industry of Cairo, sometime in the late 1950s, showing what was surely the pride of the Czechoslovak fleet: a Soviet-era Tu-104 jet, able to whisk Egyptians either north to the capitals of Europe via Prague: London, Paris, Moscow, or on a trans-Asian route: Dhahran—Bombay—Rangoon—Phnom Penh—Djakarta (none of which Czech Airlines serves today).

ASKY Airlines network, October 2010

Fast-growing regional carrier ASKY Airlines is based (somewhat surprisingly) in Lomé, Togo. The subsidiary of also-burgeoning Ethiopian Airlines has already established itself as a major West African airline, with useful connections within and between both Anglophone and Francophone cities.

Air France/KLM: African Network, Winter 2010/11: Codeshare destinations

Selected destinations served by Sky-team partner Kenya Airways in code-share are shown in red. Nairobi has become a significant hub for the alliance.

Air France/KLM: African Network, Winter 2010/11: Gulf of Guinea detail

The Air France-KLM's network in the Gulf of Guinea, serving every capital and major city from Abidjan to Luanda, is impressively dense and frequent.

Air France/KLM: Winter 2010/11

Air France-KLM's website currently features this extremely thoughtful network map for Sub-tropical Africa, with each city labelled with weekly frequencies, designated by carrier and hub. The otherwise-lucid graphic is a bit confusing, in that it includes only Libya among North African states, and even more confusingly does not include Djibouti or Madagascar--yet Air France is one of the few carriers to serve Antananarivo and Djibouti.

Air India: Worldwide, December 2006

A colorful but confusing route map from Air India. Air India's global network is complicated enough, with its "scissors hubs", necessary due to the distance between North America and the sub-continent, routing passengers via London and Frankfurt. The use of red lines for the code-share services is somewhat obfuscating, making the network seem larger and more global than it is, as the eye naturally focuses on the brighter colors.

Comparing to the previous post, there is a general, though not extensive, expansion to East Asia. several cities in Europe are served; East Africa is part of the network. More cities in the United States are connected. What is most surprisingly is the total retreat from the Gulf region; only Dubai is served between the Mediterranean and the hub at Mumbau.

Air India, worldwide network, c.1960

Via either Comet or Boeing 707 to five continents, from the Statue of Liberty to the wildlife of East Africa, the beefeaters of Buckingham to the geishas of the Ginza. Note the dense intra-European network.

Pan Am: New York-Kano, 1956

Kano has been discussed before. Its interesting as it is still a large and important city, the principal commercial center and airport in Northern Nigeria, but its international services have declined (partly due to the rise of Abuja to the south). KLM, MEA, and Saudi Arabian apparently still fly there. According to this first day cover, Pan Am connected Kano with New York in 1956, although this service did not seem to last long.

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky: The international non-stops, Winter/Spring 2005

Five Years ago, Cincinnati was connected with four European capitals daily: London (Gatwick), Paris, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt, all by Delta Air Lines, which once operated one its largest hubs from the banks of the Ohio River.  Pre-SkyTeam Partner airline Air France often landed from CDG itself. In addition, Delta landed in Northern Kentucky from Cancun, Nassau, Montreal, and Toronto.

Today, only the Paris connection remains, although Cincinnati continues to be painfully squeezed between Delta's massive hubs in Atlanta and Detroit, as well as Memphis, also under pressure to shrink, and Minneapolis (the latter three inherited from Northwest). Meanwhile, Delta launched seasonal service from Pittsburgh to Paris, which continues to operate in the summer season, usually with a B757.

BOAC: Worldwide Routes, 1962

Showing some unusual destinations, such as Brazzaville, Kano, Dakar and Windhoek that are no longer served by successor British Airways.

Pan Am: The African Routes, 1967

Pan American's African branch was never too thick. However, throughout its history, the airline flew to several dozen African cities. This map, with its two reaches from West Africa to East Africa and Southern Africa, shows the most common Pan Am run across the continent. Part of a handsome, corporate-production route atlas of the kind unknown today.

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.

USAirways to Europe: 2007

Another example of the tremendous expansion overseas by USAirways in the last ten years, showing the full, extent of transatlantic services from Stockholm to Tel Aviv-- a total of 17 non-stops from Philadelphia. It is somewhat amazing to consider that this sudden supply of seats to Brussels, Athens, and Barcelona met with equal demand, but thus far the routes remain in operation.

USAirways: Ft. Lauderdale Hub, 2004

USAirways established a Caribbean basin hub in the middle of the last decade, but apparently it didn't last. Sort of a shame, and a bit unexpected in that USAirways, like other legacy carriers, has been looking to international traffic for revenue growth recently, evident in USAirway's services from Belize to Rio from its Charlotte hub, which much offer more traffic and profits.

KLM: Amsterdam-Paramaraibo

Both KLM and Surinam Airways fly this route today a few times per week-- its hard to believe that enough people need to get between the two points, but such is the state of affairs in post-colonial aviation. Surinam Airways recently switched from a B747-300 to an Airbus A340, leased from Air France.

British Airways: London-Salisbury (Harare)

To compliment yesterday's post is this envelope from the same period, half-illustrated with a B747 in early BA livery, on its way to Harare (via Nairobi), which was still called Salisbury until 1982. Note the captain's names listed at below-left.

Air Zimbabwe: London Gatwick-Salisbury (Harare)

In time for independence, is this rather business-like flight cover from a nascent Air Zimbabwe, which apparently was so new it hadn't settled on its Great Zimbabwe eagle emblem, yet, although the italicized Air Zimbabwe remains to this day. The country itself was so new, the capital hasn't been rechristened Harare. A B707 made the run to Gatwick, which in later years would be a B767.