jlemon

24. Nope, it wasn't American. And the air carrier in question is no longer in existence.

jlemon

29. Correct! Here's the sched....

ZB 024: London Luton (LTN) 14:45 - 18:05 Alicante (ALC)
Freq: Saturdays only
Service classes: C/Y
Equip: 757

Monarch was also operating nonstop service from LTN to ALC twice a week with 32S equipment at this time (32S was defined by the OAG as being either an A319 or A320).

jlemon

25. Correct! Here's the complete westbound sched....

NA 5: Frankfurt (FRA) 10:05a - 12:05p Amsterdam (AMS) 12:50p - 4:10p Tampa (TPA)
Freq: Mondays and Wednesdays only
Service classes: F/Y
Meal service: Lunch
Equip: DC-10

National was also operating daily nonstop DC-10 service between AMS and JFK at this time.

WHBM

That would be just a fraction of the service on that route in summer, when you would find Monarch flights to Alicante almost every day, and on some days multiple flights. I can't recall what were "Alicante days" in those times, but on the established accommodation changeover days of the week you might find much of the based fleet doing one, sometimes two, and occasionally three round trips there. I think Monarch had about 8 aircraft based at Luton HQ then, although progressively they built up Gatwick as well, which eventually became the larger operation. The same all applied to their compatriots Britannia Airways who operated from alongside on the ramp - no jetways at Luton, you were led in a long conga line (sometimes literally for groups who had discovered the airport bar beforehand, even at 1 am in the rain) from the old terminal between all the GSE and across to the aircraft steps.

Although most of these flights were sold to holiday companies and didn't appear in the OAG, it was quite possible to get a "seat only" arrangement if you knew where to look, even at some obscure desks at the airport on departure.

Monarch never had an A319. Their smaller requirements at this time were met by the 737-300, a number of which were sold on to Southwest as the A320s arrived. Their 757s were very long lived, their iniitial new ones all served well over 25 years with the company.

WHBM

Quite likely - do St Lucia ARFF have their own high-speed boats tied up ready to go ?

WHBM

It sounds like TWA territory, but that would be too easy. So I'll go for Ozark. Didn't they buy a couple of 727-200 around that time that they never operated and Pan Am took over the delivery of them ?

jrl767

Toshbaf

24. In 1978, this airline requested CAB approval to begin flying a new nonstop route from Los Angeles (LAX) to Louisville (SDF) with the new service then continuing on to Nashville (BNA). However, the air carrier in question never operated the LAX-SDF-BNA service. Name the airline.

Hughes Airwest

Crazy answer, I know. However, the human brain works in mysterious ways. Not knowing the answer after the American Airlines answer was declared wrong, I went to bed. (AA recently started SDF-LAX with an A319) In the early morning, in between being awake and being asleep, maybe at 5:30 am, Hughes Airwest: Top Banana in the West came to mind.

Ozark is, by far, a more logical answer. If my answer is the wrong answer, I accept the laughter! Somehow, even after being fully awake, I have a sense that I could be right (or insane). As airline deregulation was ending, the airlines lined up at the CAB to request routes. They camped out like waiting for Black Friday sales or high demand tickets. United was first in line. Surprisingly, United asked for only one route. Even Hughes Airwest asked for more.

Seat 2A

Toshbaf - I think you've got Hughes Airwest bananas on the brain! But that's a good thing! Who knows? Perhaps you're right!

As for me, I'm gonna borrow a phrase from jrl767 and "posit" Braniff. They were bidding for all manner of disparate routes around the country back then, so why not?

P.S. I'm up to 65 new questions, and am currently researching some foreign ones - especially in and around Jolly Olde England - for our friends across the pond.

Seat 2A

21. What did U.S. air carriers Lake Central Airlines, Northern Consolidated and Pacific Air Lines as well as Mexicana de Aviacion all have in common in 1967 according to an aircraft manufacturer?

I'm going to guess this had something to do with the 737 which entered service in 1967. Indeed Lake Central was supposed to be the launch customer for the 737-200C but the order was never taken up and the aircraft went instead to Wien Consolidated (ex-Northern Consolidated Airlines) I recall Pacific also ordering 737s, but not Mexicana. In summary, let's say all of these airlines ordered 737s which were never delivered to the airline.

27. If you wanted to fly nonstop from Salt Lake City (SLC) to Chicago O'Hare (ORD) in 1982 on board a stretched DC-8, what airline would you call?

Everything here says United, but I can't imagine you going with such an obvious answer so let's go with Capitol Airlines.

jlemon

Not that I could ascertain! And the George F.L. Charles Airport (SLU) serving Castries, the island's capital, appeared to be a sleepy little airfield at the time of my visit some years ago with a few commercial flights primarily operated with ATR equipment. BWIA (known in the islands as "Bee-Wee") served SLU until the mid 1960's with the Vickers Viscount. Then along came the 727 followed by the 707 and BWIA was longer serving SLU although LIAT was still operating service into the airport with the HS 748 with their schedules appearing in the BWIA timetable.

The distance by road from Hewanorra Airport (UVF) located near Vieux Fort on the southern tip of St. Lucia to Castries is about 55 kilometers. And it is a long 55 km via a winding two lane highway along the coast and over the hills. The road was not in the best of shape as well when we visited the island and featured huge potholes several of which I hit dead on while avoiding large trucks apparently being driven by local maniacs speeding in the opposite direction. I believe one can still fly between UVF and SLU via chartered helicopter although the cost for doing this is very steep.

I remember reading an article in Air Transport World concerning BWIA's return to SLU during the mid 1990's with the MD-80. Managers with the airline stated at the time they were going back into SLU with jet flights in order to be "competitive" with regard to their St. Lucia service. I'll bet the BWIA pilots did not much care for operations at SLU with the MD-80 what with the Caribbean Sea at one end of the runway and a hill on the other end not to mention the main highway being located very close to the runway.

BTW, BWIA's successor, Caribbean Airlines, still serves SLU with flights to and from Port of Spain operated with ATR-72-600 turboprops.

jlemon

24. Ah, it wasn't Ozark.....

jlemon

24. Not so crazy as it was indeed Hughes Airwest. Here's a print ad run by the SFO based air carrier in 1978 with their route map depicting the proposed LAX-SDF-BNA service....

RWbustingout78

Referencing their 1978 route map, Hughes Airwest was also proposing new nonstop service between Phoenix and Mexico City which they never operated as well. And it's also interesting to note that Hughes Airwest was serving Denver at this time via an interchange agreement with Frontier.....although I do not know whether RW's DC-9s or FL's 737s were being used on these joint services between DEN and southern California with LAS and SLC being the interchange points between the two carriers.

jlemon

24. Well, we now know it wasn't Braniff.....and I also believe it is very safe to say we are all looking forward to your next set of quiz questions!

jlemon

21. Absolutely correct! Boeing stated at the time that all four air carriers had ordered new Boeing 737 aircraft but none of them took delivery of the type. Here's a couple of Boeing print ads concerning the customer list at the time for the 737.......

Boeing941years66

Boeing17airlines67

As most everyone knows, Lake Central was merged into Allegheny, a DC-9 operator, Northern Consolidated was merged into Wien, and Pacific, a 727 operator, joined with Bonanza and West Coast, both DC-9 operators, to form Air West while Mexicana apparently elected to go with the 727 instead.

27. Nope, it wasn't Capitol nor was it United. However, you are very much on the right track with your answer concerning Capitol so please guess again, sir!