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.

Royal Air Maroc: Timetable, Winter/Spring 2010

This might well be called, "How Not to Publish a Timetable." Its not clear why these cities have been proposed for indexing. Might a RAM passenger from Milan be slightly more likely to need to find the schedule to Tangier or Fes, as opposed to Malabo or Nouakchott? The section for Monrovia does not even mention that the routing passes through Banjul, currently the only westbound flight from Liberia. Casablanca is mentioned only by its CMH code as the connecting point. Marrakesh is nowhere. Perhaps RAM is really pushing the African routes, which are excellent (see posts from the previous week), but this timetable's exclusions miss a lot of that carrier's offerings.

Royal Air Maroc; The African Routes, 2009

Two delightful, low-tech leaflets from RAM's office in midtown Manhattan, showing the breadth and frequency of the carrier's sub-Saharan connections, via Casablanca. With so few weekly services to most cities in West and Central Africa, these provide viable options, especially as they by-pass European hubs, and therefore can save time.

British Caledonian: Gatwick-Banjul-Monrovia, April 1982

More of Banjul: this might not look particularly relevant, but this is in fact the dinner menu on the Gatwick-Banjul-Monrovia flight from the evening of 10 April 1982. With typical BCal thoroughness, the folder including routing and aircraft information; sadly this is particular paper is not part of Timetablist's core collection, so further elaboration is not available here. It does however stand as an important document proving two of Timetablist's favorite topics: the erstwhile prominence of Robertsfield among European carriers, and the last few posts' celebrations of the similarly past glory of Banjul's international connections.

Air Gambia: Gatwick-Banjul-Freetown, Winter 1973

Bathurst and Banjul did not only see foreign carriers in their time. Here is a document (pulled from the Corona typewriter, perhaps?) showing Air Gambia's winter schedule to Gatwick Airport and onward to Freetown. Must have been marginally popular then, but hardly like the air bridge that exists today of Thomas Cook package tourists who make their winter holiday on Gambia's gorgeous beaches, which make the tiny slice of West Africa a little tourism success story. Air Gambia used a B707, which somewhat shockingly was seen at Gatwick as late as October 1993, but it didn't last.

Pan Am: Miami to Africa, 1941

More history of the Cape Verde coast as global node. This particular envelope from December 6, 1941, celebrates Pan Am's first arrival in Bathurst, Gambia (today Banjul). More broadly, the deep, dynamic illustration shows a flying boat clipper which originates at Miami and reaches the equator via San Juan and Port of Spain, calling at Belem and Natal in Brazil, before crossing the ocean and reaching Bathurst. From there it appears to extend to Lagos and on to Leopoldville. As with the previous post, Dakar did not get the glory.

Lufthansa: Stuttgart-Bathurst-Rio de Janeiro

Speaking of routes linking Europe and South America via the Cape Verde coast of Africa, here is a colorful artifact celebrating Lufthansa's long history of serving the German-speaking enclaves of South America ("since 1934") and the service linking Stuttgart and Rio de Janeiro with a stop in Bathurst, Gambia (now Banjul), in November 1970--showing it isn't Dakar who gets all the action. Despite the maps and imagery, the envelope lacks the usual Lufthansa details such as aircraft type and flight number.

Virgin Nigeria Network: July, 2009

Virgin Nigeria is slowly being rebranded as Nigeria Eagle Airlines, as Sir Richard has apparently had enough of doing business in Nigeria. Can't blame him for giving it a go and sticking with it, though. Its not that bad, either: new planes, relatively low fares (by African standards, anyway). It didn't ever sustain its ambitious plans, however, as this route map, from one of its last published in-flight magazines, shows. The London and Johannesburg flights were a bit erratic, its reported. Timetablist can also confirm that Virgin Atlantic itself was sometimes seen landing in Nigeria: Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt, if mental archives are reliable...

The other page from the route map is totally irrelevant as truth but a ponderous exercise in wishful thinking. VK never made it across the Atlantic, despite the abundant traffic between New York, Houston, Washington and Nigeria. Another Nigerian line, Arik Air, has quietly inaugurated a JFK service, which seems to be doing well despite the recent added security to Nigerian air travelers.

Turkish Airlines: Istanbul-Dakar-Sao Paulo, July 2009

This is a new format for Timetablist: a cellphone camera shot of the departures board of Yoff International Airport in Dakar, Senegal (taken at the ungodly hour of 2:52am! Why are West African flights all in the middle of the night? Really, would someone please leave a comment explaining this...)

This particular screen shows several recent developments, among them Dakar's importance in its flights to the US, Delta's presence in Africa, but Timetablist's favorite route in the world right now has to be Turkish Airlines's A340 service from Istanbul to São Paulo-Guarulhos via Dakar. How a Turkish carrier is connecting Brazil and Africa is a story of our global age, and the news of its launch was bewildering and exciting when annouced last year, and it is sad but unsurprising to hear that it is ending in next month. The Dakar-South America connection has historically not been an uncommon one, but is fun and unique nowadays. (NB: Timetablist was waiting to board the 03:40 for Accra, in which it was decided to serve a full dinner at 4:30 in the morning.)

SAS: the Transatlantic Routes, 2006

A more colorful atlas-style polar projection showing SAS's routes from 2006, compared with its silver-and-clay color scheme from 2003 (yesterday's post). Its old territory of West Africa beckons from the bottom of the page, only Cairo is reached on the continent.

SAS: Map of the Long-Haul Routes, 2003

,Scandinavian Airlines System's contemporary operations focus on two long-distance markets: Asia and the United States. The US side has increasingly been aligned with United Air Lines's feeder system from its hubs (in the 1980s the alliance was with Continental's base at Newark), as well as a reliance on ethno-cultural links to Scandinavian communities in the United States, such as the Upper Midwest. Chicago O'Hare's links to both Copenhagen and Stockholm can be understood in this context, as certainly Seattle should be seen, beyond the usual link between major advanced economies.

SAS, like Finnair, has also been seeking advantage of the polar-orientations of Europe-to-North Asia routes, with some success. Other than that, SAS is limited to the European area (see yesterday's post for an exhibit of how far the system's reach used to be). Its mournful that SAS no longer lands at Seattle-Tacoma.

The copper monochrome of this polar projection is interesting, as is the inclusion of the moon for added extraterrestrial effect.

SAS: Copenhagen-Abidjan

Although monochrome and devoid of detail, this mail is another crisp example of the European first-day cover tradition. The first flight from Copenhagen to Abidjan's Port Bouet, on 6 June 1972, may have been non-stop as there is no routing information on the envelope other than upper-left text and the cancellation stamp, which both only list origin and destination. Its such a shame that the Scandinavian carrier has no routes to Africa to present.

Iberia: Western Hemisphere, February 2006

Iberia's Western Hemisphere routes in early 2006 showing, to a fault, its reliance on American Airlines to compliment its transatlantic system, particularly the radiating spokes out of Miami and Chicago. Its surprising that Iberia does not have more US destinations: nothing on the west coast, no service to Washington. Service to Boston's Logan airport has commenced since this time. Its Latin American links are proficient, but not over-abundant.

Over all, this cartography suffers from an extreme over-inclusiveness of code-share routes from American Airlines. This is further complicated by Iberia's historic base at Miami, which facilitated onward connections in Latin America. Its hard to discern among all these red lines just what IB metal serves which cities.

Iberia: Eastern Hemisphere, February 2006

Iberia's eastward system looks slimmer than its 1988 operations, but still connects to Dakar, Lagos, Malabo and Johannesburg in sub-Saharan Africa. Aside from the dense array of Moroccan cities, including the Western Saharan capital of El Aaiun, Iberia is otherwise surprisingly spare on North African destinations: no Algerian or Tunisian cities, for instance.

Air Botswana, 2006

Air Botswana is, by dint of its homeland's small population, a tiny airline with only regional aircraft. Its furthest destinations are Windhoek, Harare, Cape Town and Johannesburg, at least as of the 2006 advertisement shown here. But given how complimentary most reporting is of Botswana as Africa's little miracle, its surely a lovely carrier. Note that it seemingly has more routes out of Maun, the gateway to the Okovango Delta tourism region, and Johannesburg, than out of its capital, Gaborone, which is reportedly close enough to the Gauteng that driving is easier.

Antrak Air: Domestic Timetable, Autumn 2009

Antrak Air is an under-publicized regional carrier based in Accra, Ghana. This shows the domestic schedule shows the weekly departures to Tamale and Kumasi. Its only a shame that their route to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso isn't currently running.

UTA: The African Routes c.1980

UTA French Airlines was one of aviation's more unique carriers: from its eggplant colored airplanes to its roster of destinations-- if you saw one its widebodies, you knew your were someplace exotic (or maybe just in Paris). Its really a shame UTA didn't survive, its individual spirit has never been matched by any other intercontinental carrier since. One question on the advert: did it really serve Nouadhibou, Mauritania's secondary port and surely one of the most remote cities in the world, and not its capital, Nouakchott? Can't stop admiring the curious carrier; its a shame its reputation didn't survive the 1989 Bombing.

TWA: New York-Dar Es Salaam, 1967

Its somewhat incredible to contemplate that in several decades ago, not one (Pan Am) but two (TWA) U.S. carriers departed New York for East Africa. It would take some research to determine just how long this route lasted, but it seems to have routed via Rome, Athens and Cairo variously, stopping next at Entebbe and then on to Nairobi and terminating at Dar Es Salaam.

British Airways: Concorde visits Monrovia, 1976

25 March 1976 must have been quite a day at Roberts International Airport: likely the only time in Liberia's history that it was visited by a supersonic jet (although the craft was not unknown in West Africa, as Air France was known to run a Paris-Dakar-Rio de Janeiro service). Its not clear from this jubilant cover whether passengers were even on board, much less if any deplaned at Monrovia. From the red cancellation stamp, it suggests that it was a corporate test flight for the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC).

KLM: Amsterdam-Accra

A typically colorful first day cover from KLM in 1960, although a bit dull (the woman with the basket on her head could easily represent any African destination) considering the significance of the Amsterdam-Accra flight. This route holds a particular importance for both countries: it can easily be forgotten that, although the Gold Coast was a British Crown Colony at independence in 1959, it was the Dutch that held the area for the longest period of time, and other than South Africa, Ghana is the closest to an African territory that the Netherlands ever had. The Dutch imprint is still with Ghana, most visibly at the high-end Golden Tulip hotel in the center of town (with another property in Kumasi) and the nearby Royal Netherlands Embassy, arguably the most gorgeous modern building in the country. The KLM flight also has particular importance in Ghana's gold exports; each KLM jet is reportedly loaded with bullion.