Air Afrique: Worldwide Network, 1999 Television Advert: Detail Still Showing Route Map.

The animated map sequence in this 1999 Air Afrique television commercial gives the viewer only moments to decipher Air Afrique's route network, and its European destinations are never in full view, with Rome discernible here (and is listed in the words moving across the screen) and Paris assumed, but the dot on the Cote D'Azur might be either Nice or Marseille.

Despite this lack of clarity, this still frame shows the classic structure of its home network, with a few qualifiers. It seems that at the turn of the millenium, Accra, Bobo Dioulasso, and Nouadhibou had been dropped, along with Monrovia and Freetown, both sadly embroiled in conflict at the time.

The city along the coast between Libreville and Kinshasa would correspond to the Brazzaville which pops up on screen despite being more the location of Pointe-Noire, which, along with Port-Gentil, is absent from the network.

The eastern extension from N'Djamena to Jeddah is clear, as is the transatlantic flagship from Dakar to JFK at left. Nairobi comes across the screen but there is no clear route to East Africa shown here.

Air Afrique: Worldwide Network, 1999 Television Advert.

This wonderful Air Afrique television advert from 1999 finishes Air Afrique Week on Timetablist. In the sequence, the palm of the boy's hand becomes the African continent, with the entire route network shown as the image zooms out across the globe.

While the cities are not labeled and the map is too cartoonish to accurately determine what city corresponds to each node, the names of major destinations soar across the screen. The route from Dakar to New York can be clearly seen, as well as the incredibly dense network into Metropolitan France, but as with Thursday's post, specific routes and cities are very difficult to conclusively ascertain. Some secondary cities, such as Nouadhibou and Bobo Dioulasso, are not evident.

The next post will cover this route map animation in a bit more detail.

Air Afrique: Route Map Poster c.1962

The penultimate post for Air Afrique Week brings this polychrome poster showing the home ports of the consortium. Little information is available for this print, which was a lot in a New York vintage poster auction in February 2010. While the usual suspects of Air Afrique's destinations from Brazzaville to Bamako, Douala to Dakar, Freetown to Fort-Lamy are evident, this low-resolution preview doesn't reveal many of the details.

It seems that, near the crane-like yellow and blue bird straddling the Nigeria-Cameroon border are some mysterious destinations, and the oval inset map shows a zebra-stripe of trans-Saharan routes by the dozen, including what looks to be some very easterly swings, suggesting something like a Bangui-to-Budapest or Malabo-to-Moscow, which is fantasy.

The auction catalogue gives a date of 1950, but this is more than a decade before Air Afrique was incorporated. Perhaps, given the vintage, this was willful rather than a matter of record.

Air Afrique: Systemwide Timetable, July 1975. Detail # 1: Trans-Saharan Routes

A detail from the previous post, showing the trans-Saharan routes of Air Afrique in summer 1975. Its a bit difficult to determine just which cities are served--does the line from Abidjan to Rome hit Tunis? Is the service from Nouadhibou to Paris via Bordeaux? Which routes stop at Marseille or Nice? Its confusing that cities such as Tripoli, Agades, Lisbon and Algiers are included unnecessarily, making the connections more difficult to ascertain. However, it can be appreciated that the great North Chadian crossroads of Faya-Largeau is also helpfully included for viewers to establish proper orientation. The trans-Atlantic service to New York from Dakar is shown as an arrow at bottom right.

Air Afrique: Systemwide Timetable, July 1975

Timetablist's Air Afrique Week continues: this copiously-detailed but rather low-tech brochure was published in July 1975, showing the entire Air Afrique network at the time, along with lots of other statistics not normally provided to the passenger, such as Finances, Traffic Results, and IATA certification details--perhaps this was for corporate purposes.

Dakar and Abidjan are clearly the main stations, but N'djamena, Cotonou, Lomé, Douala, and Niamey all have direct service across the Sahara to Europe. Possibly Bobo Dioulasso and Ouagadougou have non-stops to the Metropole as well--if the map has a major drawback, it is difficult to judge which routes connect where in many cases, and a great number of cities are included for reference but are not part of the network. The next post details these destinations and the northern portion of the map.

Air Afrique: Honorary Flight Covers, 1962 and 1966

Two tremendous first day covers from La Republique de Cote D'Ivoire for Timetablist's Air Afrique Week Wednesday post. The first is a terrific 1962 envelope, celebrating the launch of the new carrier, with a brief-case bearing Ivoirian businessman, his back to the rising skyline of booming Abidjan, faces a herder at right, a lamb nestled in his hand. Between them is the African continent, zooming with 707-like jets of the era. The stamp is a duplicate image.

The second example from four years hence mimics the first. Celebrating the first flight of the sleek DC-8, which soars across the envelop from the left, towards the double cancellation marks, finished with a stylish deep-green stamp honoring the same event, with silver-grey jets streaming in front of the silver grey skyscrapers of Abidjan's modern skyline.

Air Afrique: Douala-Geneva, November 1969

Tuesday of Timetablist's Air Afrique week: An attractive first flight cover of Air Afrique from Douala to Geneva on 6 November 1969. The sharp but simple graphics of the envelope, with its clever textual boundary dividing the surface in two, is enhanced by the carefully placed special-cancellation mark, and the colorful stamps at right.

Cameroon would be setting up its own flag-carrier, Cameroon Airlines, and therefore withdrawing from the Air Afrique group, barely a year after the issuance of this envelope and the launch of this service. Cameroon's inaugural flights, on 1 November 1971, were almost two years to the day from this celebratory issue (although Cameroon's B747 service to Europe only came later in the 1970s).

Air Afrique: B707 Stamp of the Republic of Benin, c.1975

For Monday of Air Afrique week, here is a classically exotic image from both the golden age of jet travel and Africa's independence era: A broad-winged B707 in on a palm-fringed airfield, as the ground crew awaits deplaning passengers from Marseille, Paris or Geneva.

The pride of the young Benin, which was originally colonial Dahomey. The blacked out labelling on the stamp from Republique du Dahomey to Benin suggests the vintage of this issue to be 1975 or just thereafter.

Also, other than the occasional freighter version, Air Afrique did not employ the B707, utilizing instead the DC-8. Given that this is a non-Afrique aircraft which is not painted in Afrique colors, perhaps this drawing was originally an Air France B707. It can only be guessed that this is a gateway Benin airfield of Cotonou or Porto-Novo.

Air Afrique: West and Central Africa Timetable, mid-1973

After last week's posts on the post-independence carriers of the Republic of Gabon, Timetablist stays in the Gulf of Guinea region, clearing out the back catalogue with a week dedicated to Air Afrique.

The first item is a French language timetable from the early prime of the regional consortium, effective from March to October 1973, showing its weekly intra-African flights (translated into English, rather interestingly, as 'domestic' services). Air Afrique's renown gazelle & globe emblem is shown at top.

Services include certain routes of Royal Air Maroc (code AT) and Air Mauritanie (code MR), although it is noted at the bottom of the table that there is "no traffic rights" --perhaps, Air Afrique is unable to sell seats on the other carrier's routes included, but its not clear why these routes are then offered in the matrix. There are lots of cities excluded as well, key Air Afrique hubs, not least Abidjan but also Cotonou and Lomé.

Gabon Airlines: Worldwide Network*, c.2010

After the previous post's historic example from the glory days of Air Gabon, in which that country's current flag carrier was briefly mentioned, it'd be appropriate to provide some more detail on that rather less celebratory successor, Gabon Airlines.

The erstwhile Air Gabon's angular, sharp-eyed, forest-green character has been replaced with a banal abstract assemblage, which is difficult to discern on the tiny B767 above, which spurts a toxic green contrail across the center of the continent as it roars off toward East Asia, away from any of the carrier's true destinations (which are equally difficult to discern, as discussed below). Gabon Airlines' flagship A340 sports no scheme whatsoever.

In comparison to the last post's Air Gabon network from three decades previous, its interesting to note that Metropolitan destinations (Nice, Marseille) and Rome are not shown above, with the most notable additions being Beirut and Dubai. In its home region, a thick array of Gulf of Guinea destinations lacks only Yaoundé and Kinshasa. Most curiously absent from the map is Gabon's second city, Port Gentil.

But this does not mean the airline does not serve it: Wikipedia's article on Gabon Airlines refers back to the carrier's website, which shows a recent schedule listing only Paris CDG, Marseille, Pointe-Noire, Libreville, and Port-Gentil. Its not clear whether these are recent adjustments to a larger systemwide network, or represent the entire extent of the carrier's services. Another section of the website theoretically allows for online purchases of tickets to destinations including Douala, Malabo, and São Tomé, as well as domestics services to Franceville and Moanda. But then this has only a scant relationship to the route map above, with its dozen other cities.

The unpainted A340 occasionally appearing at CDG Aerogare-1 truly represents Gabon Airlines: something of a mystery.

Air Gabon: Worldwide Network, 1992

Two lovely vintage graphics from the now sadly defunct Air Gabon, with its delightful, cartoonish icon. Underneath is a wealth of detail of the 3x weekly from Paris CDG Terminal 1 aboard a B747 Combi, with 18 First Class and 46 Business Class and 188 Economy Class seats to Libreville, with onward connections to Pointe-Noire, Luanda and Port-Gentil. Despite the lively colors and the lubricant of the lavish petrol-paradises of its regional network, and its stately ticket office on Rue Roosevelt off the Champs Elysées, Air Gabon has failed. Paris-Libreville, aside from service by Air France, is now served by Gabon Airlines with a rather blandly undecorated leased A340, which still departs terminal 1 and still has three classes of service. Travelers at Nice and Marseille must somehow make their way to Gabon without convenience of direct service.

Air Madagascar: International Routes, c.2007

Continuing with Air Madagascar from the last post, this route map, from the semi-orphaned English-language North American Air Mad website, shows the carrier's international routes from a few years ago, when Milan was served and Marseille (a current destination) was not. The site's timeline helpfully confirms that Air Mad formerly served Zurich, Frankfurt, Rome, and Munich. Although not part of this image, Air Mad's already-fanciful livery was updated as new aircraft were acquired in recent years to emphasize the gorgeous, warm maroon color, but retained the famous "travelers' palm."

Air Madagascar: Zürich-Antananarivo, 1986

A gorgeously designed and stamped first day cover celebrating the first flight of Air Madagascar from Zürich to Antananarivo, 1 November 1986 with Air Mad's B747B . Sadly, Air Mad no longer serves Kloten Airport, and once served Frankfurt and Milan as well, but does still offer Paris and Marsielle. However, today its largest aircraft is the B767-300.

Air Namibia: Systemwide Network, 2010

Air Namibia has successfully served its prosperous but sparsely-populated republic since independence in 1990. Intercontinental routes have concentrated on London and Frankfurt (largely due to Namibia's unique population of German-speakers). Air Berlin currently serves Windhoek, and the London-Gatwick route has been difficult to sustain, and was suspended in May 2009. Air Namibia has had better luck since 2009 with direct service from Johannesburg to Accra, using its two A340.

Air Astana: International Routes, 2011

From the interactive route map at Air Astana's website. The national airline of Kazakhstan is named after the country's new capital, although confusingly the airline's central hub continues to be the older, larger, erstwhile capital, Almaty. Air Astana uses a combination of Airbus A320, B757 and B767 aircraft to link Almaty to London, Amsterdam, Istanbul, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, China, Russia, Delhi, Abu Dhabi and several regional and domestic destinations. The city of Astana itself is, according to Wikipedia, linked to Istanbul, Frankfurt, Moscow, Urumqi, Novosibirsk, Abu Dhabi, and Yekaterinburg, and seasonally to Hanover, although this is not shown on the airline's website.

Etihad Airways: African, European & North American Routes, 2011

Etihad is far behind its rival Emirates, especially in terms of African routes. It had fewer North American destinations (and has no A380s) although it has successfully served Chicago O'Hare non-stop with an A340-500 for more than a year. The airline also links Abu Dhabi with smaller cities like Geneva, Minsk, Kiev, Brussels, and Dublin.

Egyptair: the African Routes, 2011

Egyptair has long had a strong presence in connecting the continent's largest city and its headquarters, Cairo, with the rest of Africa. This includes three cities in Nigeria, as well as the city of Juba, capital of South Sudan, which has just recently voted for independence.

Emirates: the African Routes, 2011

Fast-growing Emirates has 18 destinations on the African continent as of 2011.

Iceland Express: New Routes, 2011

A small, back-of-the-ticket-jacket route map showing fast-growing low-cost Iceland Express's bold expansion plans for the coming year across North America, including especially the rather unusual choice of Winnipeg. Clearly marketing this new service to British customers. Note that Reykjavík is shown as the connection point, when it is technically the international airport at Keflavík where the change of planes takes place.

Air Congo Poster

A promotional poster for Air Congo's intercontinental jet services.