AlwaysAisle

This year I went thought old stuff in storage and found a lot pictures (35 mm film) I took in the past. I like photography in pure personal hobby level. I never bothered to learn concepts and tecchniques of photography, I just take pictures in the way I like. I did spend all my summer job money to buy Pentax LX, damn good camara and still works!



For those interested, lenses are 28 mm, 50 mm, and 80 - 200 mm zoom. I sure took a lot of pictures. I decided to buy a negative scanner and scan all those pictures to digital. This is all for personal memory, not looking for a quality. I had few pictures I took at Narita and thought this place is a nice place to post those. Please understand that it is 35 mm pictures took by non-professional and scanned to digital in also non-professional way.

Narita 1980s

Kaisei Skyliner, original version.




This was the first Skyliner which ran between 1973 - 1990. NRT did not open till 1978, but the original Skyliner started to run on 1973. The original plan was NRT to open on 1972 but opening was delayed till 1978. Keisei had new Skyliner trains made and was ready to start Skyliner service to NRT on 1972. On 1973 Keisei started few non-stop service between Ueno and Narita using Sklyliner train, rather than having Skyliner trains sitting at a train yard doing nothing and waiting for NRT to open, back then it sure felt like NRT will never open.

When NRT finally opened in 1978 Keisei Narita Airport station was today's Higashi Narita station, underground station located between Termianl 1 and Termianl 2, free intra terminal bus stops at Higashi Narita station. The current Narita Airport station below Terminal 1 existed at the current location since opening of NRT in 1978, but Keisei could not use the station below Termianl1 back then. The station below Termianl1 was built for Narita Shinkansen.and JR's predesessor JNR which was a government entity did not allow Keisei to use the station below Terminal 1. The plan for Narita Shinkansen was terminated and for a long time the station below Terminal 1 was unused. .JNR was privetized on 1987 and became JR, then the talk started about finally make use out of the station below Terminal 1. Finally Keisei was allowed to serve directly to the terminal along with JR and the station below Termianl 1 finally opened for passenger service in 1991.

Back to NRT in '80s. Back then only Termianl 1 existed so the terminal building was not called Termianl 1. It was simply called North Wing and South Wing. Below is picture of check-in area of South Wing back in '80s.


Departure board of South Wing in '80s.


BA (British Airways) served JNB (Johannesburgh, South Africa) from NRT. Flight number changed at HKG (Kai Tak back then) but was through aircraft service and I think the route was like NRT-HKG-CMB-SEZ-JNB. Japanese companies invested a lot in South Africa and there was enough demand between Japan and South Africa. However, Japan and South African did not have an official diplomatic relation till 1992 when it was re-established, Japan and South Africa did have diplomatic relation but was terminated during WW II. When BA flew LHR-ANC-NRT-HKG-CMB-SEZ-JNB, BA had to change flight number at HKG because there was no bilateral air treaty between Japan and South Africa. BA flew same aircraft from LHR to JNB via ANC, NRT, HKG, CMB, SEZ for sure it was the longest route for BA. Obviously JL could not fly to South Africa because Japan did not have an air treaty with South Africa.

Also see CP Air (CP), I miss CP Air, that was a fine airline. VARIG (RG) flew from Brazil via LAX. Then see all those Northwest Orient (NW) and PanAm (PA) with PA 1 and PA 2, Round the World flight.

Obviously, JL was the major occupant of NRT, using North Wing, 747 heaven back then.




It was 747 all over the place, but in '80s JL operated 727-100 also. I am not sure if JL had 727-100 flight out of NRT, but I know back in '80s JL operated KIJ (Niigata) - KHB (Khabarovsk, USSR back then) and KMQ (Komatsu) - SEL (Gimpo back then) by 727-100. It was not a daily flight. 727-100 was based at NRT. Aircraft was serviced and catered at NRT, with FAs on board aircraft was ferried to KIJ and KMQ prospectoively to do KHB and SEL flights.

Another big one at NRT was PanAm.




PanAm 747-100/200, 747SP which flew NRT-JFK non-stop, and see the tail on the second picture where PanAm operated 727-200 out of NRT. I think PanAm used 727-200 on NRT-ITM feeder flight but not sure what other routes PanAm used 727-200 out of NRT.

Another big guys at NRT was Northwest Orient. I liked this Northwest Orient liverly best.




What I remember is that service of Northwest Orient was nothing to write home about...

Some other at NRT... Korean Air Lines and Cathay Pacific in old color.


Some 707, Korean Air Lines and VARIG cargo.




Old color SAS DC-10-30


CAAC, before Air China. 747SP and Trident




Will continue to '90s and early 2000s at NRT.

freecia

Any ideas which industry enabled this route " I know back in '80s JL operated KIJ (Niigata) - KHB (Khabarovsk, USSR back then) and KMQ (Komatsu) - SEL (Gimpo back then) by 727-100. It was not a daily flight. 727-100 was based at NRT. Aircraft was serviced and catered at NRT, with FAs on board aircraft was ferried to KIJ and KMQ prospectoively to do KHB and SEL flights."?

A Little Cow

It looks like the Niigata -> Khabarovsk connection goes back to the 1970s primarily for agricultural-related exports form Niigata: https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXNA...21C10A0L21000/ The route was still well utilized up until 2005, and then slowly lost utilization and was suspended in 2010, maybe with occasional rivals/seasonal services since then. It looks like there is some general idea of Niigata being the connector of Japan with the USSR at the time.

I can't quite figure out what agricultural product was getting shipped; the article mentions cut flowers as getting sent out on planes but I imagine most products wouldn't be profitable as airline cargo. It looks like Khabarovsk is a major rail junction and has a water connection to the pacific along the Amur rivers via China, so perhaps some goods were coming in via boat?

5khours

Great pictures thanks for sharing. I love the Varig photo. My first trip across the Pacific to Japan was on a Varig 707 through Anchorage, but that was before Narita so we flew into Haneda. I was amazed by the number of people in the arrivals lobby. I’d never been anywhere that crowded in my life and felt a bit overwhelmed. My first trip out of Narita was early summer 78. It was a Northwest 747-100 which flew to ORD. No Detroit or Minneapolis back, and the only flight going further east was the Pan Am 747 SP.

Security going into Narita was very tight back then. If I remember correctly you could take the Keisei line to a station just outside the airport perimeter, and then from there you transferred to a bus which was carefully searched before going into the airport. Security guards boarded the buses and intently perused the passports of all the passengers. It kind of reminded me of a cold war epic when someone was trying to escape out of East Berlin.

Fun memories. Thanks again for sharing.

YVR Cockroach

That ran at least into the mid '80s. Armoured guards with kendo sticks. The local farmers were angry.

mjm

Amazing pictures!! I say those aircraft in London and San Francisco about the same time. Thank you!

Nagasaki Joe

That's why many Japanese had a nickname for it back in the day and called it "Northworst Airlines".

I passed through Khabarovsk back in 1976, but not by plane, and it was not a very attractive city. Khabarovsk was, as you said, a major rail junction of the Trans-Siberian railway, so if goods came from there to Japan by boat, they would have had to have traveled to the railway's terminus in Vladivostok and/or Nakhodka, where there were regularly scheduled passenger/cargo ships sailing to Yokohama since 1961. But I heard that when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the route was changed and the ships were diverted from Vladivostok to Niigata and Fushiki (Toyama Pref.).

I remember that there was a machine gun nest surrounded by sandbags at Narita Airport's entrance. At the airport entrance, passengers handed over their passports and got off the bus with their luggage, which was opened and inspected by police, and then they boarded the bus again to the airport. Cold war-like it may have been, but it was nothing like the security you would have experienced crossing the border from the Soviet Union to East Berlin.

AlwaysAisle

Thanks for comments. Sure it was different back then, I was back in memory lane when scanning all those photos.

Yes, KIJ (Niigata) - KHB (Khabarovsk) is weired one. I though it is political thing between Japanese government at USSR government back then. However, informaiton from City of Niigata website, in 1962 mayor of Niigata visited Khabarovsk and had discussion about trade. Trades between Far East Russia and western coast side of Japan is nothing unusual historically. Hakodate had trade between Far East Russia for very long time. Akita had freight ship from Far East Russia on regular basis for long time. I think City of Niigata tried to be part of it.

Then Niigata earthquake hit in 1964, magnitude 7.4 devestated Niigata. Khabarovsk and Vladivostok sent 3,000 square meters of lumber for rebuilding of Niigata. 1965 Niigata and Khabarovsk became sister cities. 1973 KIJ-KHB flight started. Vladivostok was navy port and non-Russians were not allowed to visit till 1992. Interesting history. It can go back to Japan-Russia war on 1904, but I think that will go off topic very fast.

Now in '90s. Did not find a lot of photos from '90s, but I have not gone through half of photos I have, could show up later.

Aeroflot, still going strong with Ilyshin Il-62 back in '90s


Iran Air (IR) 747SP. Many Japanese companies had tie with Middle East oil producers. I did hear there was (still is?) high business demand between Japan and Middle East. In '80s and '90s Iran Air flight was the one if wanted to go to Middle East. I read before that Iran Air even had Tokyo based flight attendant to fly on their NRT-IKA flight, which I think it stopped at Beijing (PEK) I think. Not sure if Iran Air ever flew non-stop NRT-IKA.. The background of this photo, by '90s PanAm was no more in Japan. See United tails.


Air Lanka (UL,current SriLankan Airlines ) L1011-500. I love L1011. Maldives become popular toruists destination for Japanese, Air Lanka made good money on NRT-CMB-MLE. SQ (Singapore Airlines) flew SIN-MLE so SQ also tapped into Japanese toruist on NRT-SIN-MLE Earlier UL NRT-CMB flight stopped at FUK (Fukuoka), I don't think it was a range thing of L1011-500. NRT-CMB is shorter than NRT-SFO and United flew NRT-SFO using L1011-500, which United had to buy from PanAm when they purchased PanAm Pacific route in late '80s. But also could have been range thing, I vaguley remember that back then Air Lanka (UL) did not have over flight permission from some countries so they had to make detour south flying between Japan and Sri Lanka.


Continue.

5khours

An undeserved reputation IMHO. I flew TPAC close to a 500 times on NWA. Very reliable. Great mileage program. Good seats for the time. Decent service. They had a pretty good operation in Japan and were very popular with Japanese tourists (although JAL had a certain snob appeal with Japanese businessmen.)

Quite true because East Berlin being 500 miles away had no border with the Soviet Union. Mistaken geography aside, I crossed the Berlin Wall through Checkpoint Charlie several times in '77, and at the time, the East Germans were actually pretty relaxed compared to the security guards when Narita first opened. The West Germans on the other hand were freaking out about the Badaer Meinhof gang at that time, and I actually spent several hours being hauled in and interrogated at local police stations on a couple of occasions.

RussianTexan

Wow! Beautiful pictures! That Keisei Skyliner totally matches the old rolling stock that Wikipedia lists. So cool! Thank you so much for sharing this!
edit: It also took me a little while to figure out that CP Air was Canadian Pacific!

fdog

Thank you for the photos! What a great walk down memory lane.

All the best, James

YYZC2

I only started flying into NRT in 2000 but even so these pics bring back great memories. I miss Japan…

Thanks for posting.

Nagasaki Joe

My reference to "crossing the border from the Soviet Union to East Berlin" is in reference to Soviet-era trains traveling from Moscow to East Berlin, where Western passengers could get off and catch onward transportation to the West, presumably from West Berlin. I should have been clearer, but I was referring to what a passenger who took the trip once told me about the tensions he experienced at the arrival station, which likely was very different from your experience at Checkpoint Charlie as someone already in Berlin. Anyway, his experience with border tensions was similar to my own traveling from Moscow to Vienna in 1976. After passing through Poland and Czechoslovakia we arrived at the Austrian border where Austrian soldiers with machine guns and military dogs boarded each end of our train car (the only car on the train that held passengers of all nationalities traveling from the Soviet Union). Once we arrived at Vienna Station, the soldiers and dogs descended the train steps and just stood there waiting on the platform, but were close enough to the car exit that I thought they might be there to block it, leaving me to wonder if I could get off or not. I was very hesitant as no instructions were given and I didn't want to get shot for getting off the train if I wasn't supposed to. It was very eerie and tense, but eventually, I saw others start to make their way off the train and to the station, so I followed. Anyway, my point was that this was far tenser than anything I ever experienced from Narita Airport security, though the machine gun nest there was certainly a Cold War reminder.

In that light, your mention of the Baader-Meinhof Gang (RAF) is apropos. The 70s was the era of Marxist-Leninist and Maoist terror (which was responsible, along with hijackers, for the advent of airport metal detectors and increased security) and Narita Airport security was meant to deter more than angry farmers but also sympathetic "extremists and terrorists" such as the RAF, PFLP (Carlos the Jackal), and the Japanese Red Army, which had carried out the LOD AIrport massacre in Tel Aviv in 1973 where 26 people were killed, were very real threats at the time. So Narita security did have a serious mission.

JapanFlyerT

In 1986 I took the train from Italy to Czechoslavakia, then to Poland, and had a similar feeling seeing the dogs, wire and guards with guns at the border crossing. Also was in West Berlin and took a special bus to East Berlin to catch a cheap(er) flight to Greece.

AlwaysAisle

Now it is early 2000s. Terminal 2 was built, Termianl 1 South Wing renovation completed, and direct train service to Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 by JR and Keisei.

Skyliner v2.0


Yes, it is not the best picture. This is the second version of Skyliner. The system of Skyliner v2.0 was fitted so that can run on Toei Asakusa Line and Keikyu Line. Keisei's commuter train do connect and run through Toei Asakusa Subway Line and Keikyu Line. There was an idea for Skyliner to do same, connect Narita Airport and Ginza/Shibuya area, then further can go to Shinagawa and Yokohama going through Keikyu Line. But the idea never materialized. Any case Sklyliner v2.0 was fitted with all nessary systems to run through Toei Asakusa Line and Keikyu Line.

JL 747-400. Does anybody like this JL color? I like other better.



Last NW Livery.




NW had 747-400 flying over Pacific. A330 joined the Pacific operation. Although I kind of remember that initially plan for NW was to use A330 on Atlantic operation and Pacific operation remain 747-400. Then NW brought 757-200 over to NRT. I think 757-200 was used to expand Micronesia service, but somewhere I recall that NW also used 757-200 for NRT-PUS and NRT-Taiwan (TPE?). Again , same with JL livery, this is not my favorate NW livery. I like Northwest Orient livery best, I think that went very well with 747s.

NW also operated cargo flights with 747-200F.


AA (Americn Airlines) 777-200 with F service at NRT before JL joing OneWorld. Terminal 1 North Wing. AA had an Admirals Club at Terminal 1 North Wing.



United before merger with CO. UA 747-400 with two liverly, and 777-200 started fly on Pacific route.




Then finally LCC (low cost carrier) arrived at Japan, and used NRT for domestic operation.



That was AirAisa Japan v1.0, which was a joint venture between AirAsia in Malaysia and ANA, flew out of NRT. I think AirAsia Japan only lasted less tha two years? ANA picked up what was left of AirAsia v1.0 and started Vanilla Air, 100% owned by ANA flying out of NRT. Vanilla Air was merged with Peach Aviation, 100% owned LLC of ANA based out of KIX. Both of them no longer.

I should not leave out ANA. ANA was pprimary domestic carrier, due to Japanese government aviation regulation. But has been operating international charter flights (few per month) since 1971. Then on 1986 first international scheduled service by ANA started on NRT-GUM using L1011. Followed by trans oceanic international flight NRT-LAX and NRT-IAD using 747-200 in same year. Since then ANA has grew international operation.



Extra, it is not at NRT, but it is at HND. JL 747-300 with DC-6B picture, JD (JAS) A300-600 with JAL marking, and Japan Transocean Air (NU) 737-400. JAL purchased the stock of JAS on 2002 and JAS became a part of JAL but JAS kept operating under JAS name till 2004. So this picture should be between 2002 and 2004.