WHBM

Well, the airline was Imperial Airways, our grand pre-war world-spanning airline, and the low destination was Tiberias, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, which was the Palestine stop for the Empire Flying Boats to India and Australia during 1937-39. Passengers from London to Jerusalem got off here and were taken back up the mountain by car. It's 800 feet below sea level, not as far down as the Dead Sea, but getting there. The increased air density was enough that on takeoff the engine boost was not needed.

1) I believe Pan Am was operating nonstop between JFK and LAX at this time, most likely with B747 equipment. And I think Eastern may have been flying JFK-LAX nonstop as well with an L1011 once a day. Over at Newark, World Airways was operating a DC-10 nonstop EWR-LAX with their low fare experiment at this time....and back at JFK, I think the DC-8 operator may have been Capitol Air, perhaps with Super DC-8 series 60 equipment on the JFK-LAX nonstop route.
Pretty much there, but Eastern were the ones with four Tristars a day from JFK to LAX. They must have lost a great deal, it didn't last for long with them. Even the 6.00 pm departure from JFK allowed Night Coach fares ! And yes, that was Capitol, bringing up the tail with their lone DC8, charter configuration, no first class.

2) This sure sounds like Braniff International, most likely with DC-8-62 equipment. The JFK-MIA flights operated by BN were part of their services to and from South America at the time.
Indeed. Everyone else's DC8s have gone from the route by this time but Braniff's flights heading for Latin America continue.

3) From good old Burbank Airport (an airfield I also know quite well having been born and raised in nearby Pasadena), the two airlines operating BUR-LAS service were Hughes Airwest, operating DC-9-30 equipment, and Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA), flying B727-200 aircraft. Later on, PSA operated the BAe 146 on the route and I remember my flight on this "Smileliner" from LAS to BUR following a very rigorous hiking adventure I undertook in the Grand Canyon one summer (and I won't repeat that mistake of attempting to hike out of such a big ditch in the high desert when air temps are over 100 degrees F).

And then there was the high frequency LAX-LAS service operated by Western Airlines. I think WA was flying around sixteen (16) or so roundtrips a day on the route, primarily with B737-200 equipment at this time. The other carrier flying LAX-LAS was PSA, again with B727-200 aircraft.

Other carriers around this same time period (late 70's and early 80's) that served LAX-LAS included American, TWA and United but they operated very few flights. And in August of 1980, they may have not provided service on this route at all.[/QUOTE]
All spot on. Indeed. It's surprising nobody else was doing the Vegas route at that time, as I recall different operators came and went quite rapidly (LAX to Reno was the same). PSA themselves were quite recent. The regular hourly operation by Western is strange for a leisure-oriented route, that's normally a marketing advantage on business-heavy routes with everyone chopping and changing their arrangements.

Incidentally, it was on this 1980 August trip that we went to an open air theater about two-three miles due south of Burbank (jlemon - any ideas where ?) one pleasantly warm evening. Well BUR just happened to be using runway 15 that evening so departures, mainly PSA 727s in those days, were periodically coming up straight over us all. There was a preliminary announcement that "because the airplanes are coming over this evening the actors will freeze until it's passed". This was great fun. We were sat high up, facing north, so saw the lights rising in the sky beyond the backing trees before the actors did, then the noise started, the actors exchanged surreptitious glances for when they should stop, and then everything stopped. Pass over, more glances, and on we go. I still remember those 727s. Shame I haven't got a single recollection of what the performance was !