Originally Posted by
artvandalay
OT, but...Please share your source. I flew this route on UA right after it started, and at that time, the 747SP--which UA acquired from PanAm as part of their ambitious Pacific route purchase (along with SEA-NRT)--was the only AC that could span such a distance NS.
Then you didn't flew this route right after it started, as this route was the third TPAC route UA started in 1983, way before UA bought PA's Pacific division, this was not a PA route at all, and UA lack the fifth freedom rights that only PA and NW had, so it can only start it's own on 2nd tier cities.
Another reason is back then UA had ZERO long haul planes, they had 747, but all of them were -122, which have no range to fly any long haul other than SEA-NRT and PDX-NRT, they had DC10, but all were the short range -10. So UA actually swapped 3 DC10-10 with CP for 3 DC10-30 (higher thrust version that equivalent to DC-10-30ER. All 3 of them had repainted in UA rainbow colors but with CP registration C-GCPF, C-GCPG, and C-GCPH, active from 1983-1987.