jrl767

yeah, a 727 of any variety was always a good ride ... speaking of interesting shorthand, I recall from one of my DCA photo expeditions (described upthread a few days ago) that Eastern used "B3" to identify the nosewheel location on the pavement ... the agent or crewmember who walked down the jetway with me said it stood for "Boeing three-holer"

ok, back to 1983 ... getting closer
D8S is correct, RNO is correct
RC is incorrect, DC9/D9S are incorrect

teddybear99

1. BDL-EWR on an Eastern A300 departing at 7:45 am with a 10 hour layover so you would need to find breakfast and lunch somewhere as the first flight is too short to serve a meal. You would then get on a World DC-10 where dinner will be served before you arrive at 9:35 pm West Coast time which would be close to 16 hours from start to finish.

2. Knowing the only widebody flying into SJC at the time was a TWA 767 STL-SJC. I will say UA BDL-ORD on a DC-10, UA ORD-CLE on a 767, and TWA CLE-SJC via STL on a 767.

jrl767

well you have aced this round ... all your guesses are correct

I thought that the TW 767 STL-SJC would be fairly obvious, but hoped the fact that it was a thru flight from CLE would be a bit more of a stumper ... oh well ...

WHBM

Not a quiz item, but apparently the last Ilyushin IL-62 left flying commercially, from Rada Airlines of Minsk, Belarus, has been into Doncaster airport, UK, yesterday

I guess pictures will emerge of it. Cargo operators across Europe are currently having a field day. Here she is, departing from Malta just 6 days ago.


Rada Airlines // ???????????? ???? // IL-62M

WHBM

Meanwhile I see that Cityjet have started bankruptcy proceedings. Looks like we may have seen the last of the BAe146/RJ here at London City, and indeed here in Europe. I remember looking up at the last one I saw some weeks ago, as they were one of the last to run into London City. Didn't realise they also owned 75% of the recent Air Antwerp startup unto LCY, which was the last Fokker F50 service into the UK.

jlemon

On our side of the pond, Delta released information today concerning their March 2020 quarter financial results including the following:

* March quarter 2020 GAAP pre-tax loss of $607 million or $0.84 a share

* March quarter 2020 adjusted pre-tax loss of $422 million or $0.51 a share

* Delta ended the March quarter 2020 with $6.0 billion in unrestricted liquidity

Future actions taken by Delta will include making significant reductions for the June quarter versus prior year with a total system capacity down 85 percent, including domestic down by 80 percent and international capacity down by 90 percent. Delta also expects June quarter total expenses to decline by approximately 50 percent or $5 billion over prior year due to reduced capacity, lower fuel cost and cost saving initiatives including parking more than 650 aircraft.

Here in LFT, Delta is down to one flight a day most days to their ATL hub operated recently with a B717-200. Meanwhile, our brand new, bright and shiny, futuristic looking passenger terminal is now nearing completion.

BTW, any recent military air traffic at LCY?

WHBM

There hasn't been a single movement at LCY of any sort since it shut down weeks ago. Although most of the BA Embraer fleet went to storage elsewhere (principally Norwich), four of their E190s were left behind at the gates. They have since been put behind low wooden boards as if to protect them from something, but zero movements. Notably the airfield security patrol Land-Rover still methodically plods around airside, does bird scaring, etc, but for seemingly no purpose.

jlemon

Sounds like things are rather quiet in your neighborhood......and here's hoping we all get back to some sense of normalcy as soon as possible.

BTW, we are hearing that Delta (which owns 49% of Virgin Atlantic, of course) is not prepared to inject cash into Virgin Atlantic. In fact, it appears that Virgin Atlantic owes Delta around $200 million. And we also hear the UK government has rejected Virgin Atlantic's request for a loan. So it sounds like Mr. Branson is in a bit of a tight spot at the moment with bankruptcy proceedings a distinct possibility for Virgin Atlantic.

Thus, a bonus quiz item....

Name all of the intercontinental destinations that Virgin Atlantic was serving on a nonstop basis from London Heathrow in the fall of 1996. ANSWERED

WHBM

The issues with Virgin Atlantic start with the "Branson side" being ultimately corporately registered not in the UK but in a Caribbean island, specifically to minimise UK taxation. This makes things a bit difficult for then turning round and asking for the UK taxpayer to support them. Meanwhile the "Delta side" has got much criticism in the UK financial press for squandering billions on what commentators here saw as adequate cash reserves on a big share buyback scheme, of no benefit to the company as a going business and wholly to inflate the stock market price (and executive bonuses linked to this) of a profitable company - which of course they no longer are.

It's an issue that airline ownership is no longer tied to the country they are based in. BA is wholly owned by IAG, whose main headquarters is in Madrid.

I wonder how Virgin can actually owe Delta USD 200m, whether that is actual goods & services provided, or just some means of diverting Virgin money to a lower tax regime.

I'll have a shot at this - I think it would be 9.

Tokyo
Hong Kong
Johannesburg
Boston
JFK
Miami
LAX
San Francisco
... and Athens.

Virgin was building up a new A340 and 747-400 fleet, to take over from their original secondhand 747-200s. The exception was the Athens route, which operated twice daily with a single A320.

They were still running out of their original point at London Gatwick as well, to Newark (their pioneer route), Orlando, etc.

I was actually a passenger with them in Autumn 1996, LHR-LAX, on a round-the-world ticket to Australia, doing the rest of the trip on Qantas, when we set up our Australian office. New 747-400, they got a group of them from a cancelled Alitalia order.

jlemon

Here we go per the October 27, 1996 OAG......

Tokyo - Correct! VS 901 NRT 12:00 - 16:30 LHR, op daily except Thursdays, A340 C/Y

Hong Kong - Correct! VS 201 HKG 22:45 - 04:45+1 LHR, op daily except Tuesdays, A340 C/Y ; VS 201 HKG 22:30 - 04:45+1 LHR, op Tuesdays only, A340 C/Y

Johannesburg - Correct! VS 602 JNB 21:15 - 06:30+1 LHR, op Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays only, A340 C/Y

Boston - Nope! The flight operated into Gatwick: VS 012 BOS 20:20 - 07:50+1 LGW, op daily, B747-200 C/Y, code share for Delta as DL* 2812

New York Kennedy - Correct! Two flights a day: VS 004 JFK 19:30 - 07:10+1 LHR, op daily, B747-200 C/Y, code share for Delta as DL* 2804; VS 010 JFK 22:25 - 10:35+1 LHR, op Daily except Wednesdays, B747-200 C/Y, service also a code share for Delta as DL* 2810

Miami - Nope! The flight operated into Gatwick: VS 006 MIA 18:20 - 07:25+1 LGW, op daily except Mondays & Tuesdays, B747-200 C/Y, code share for Delta as DL* 2806

Los Angeles - Correct! VS 008 LAX 17:30 - 11:45+1 LHR, op daily, B747-400 C/Y, code share for Delta as DL* 2808

San Francisco - Correct! VS 020 SFO 16:30 - 10:30+1 LHR, op daily, B747-200 C/Y, code share for Delta as DL* 2820

Athens - Correct! VS 1001 ATH 07:45 - 09:45 LHR, op Saturdays only, A320 C/Y; VS 1001 ATH 10:00 - 12:00 LHR, op daily except Saturdays & Sundays, A320 C/Y; VS 1005 ATH 16:00 - 18:00 LHR, op Sundays only, A320 C/Y

Newark - The flight was being operated into Heathrow at this time: VS 002 EWR 21:25 - 09:05+1 LHR, op daily, B747-400 C/Y, code share for Delta as DL* 2802

Orlando - Yep! VS 016 MCO 19:10 - 08:15+1 LGW, op daily, B747-400 C/Y, code share for Delta as DL* 2816

BTW, Virgin Atlantic was also code sharing with Malaysia Airlines at this time with MH operating B747-400 service nonstop between Kuala Lumpur and London Heathrow (plus a one stop flight once a week via Dubai) with all MH flights between KUL and LHR also having VS flight numbers (the DXB - LHR portion of the flight operated by MH did not have a VS flight number).

Concerning the report that Virgin Atlantic owes Delta $200 million, the news article concerning this appeared yesterday in the electronic edition of Forbes magazine with this quote from the Forbes senior aviation correspondent: "Virgin (Atlantic) has to pay Delta $200 million related to their joint venture, the airlines agreed earlier this year." And the article also quoted Delta CEO Ed Bastian concerning DL possibly divesting their interest in VS: "I have no interest in trying to sell them or monetizing them at this point or any time in the future."

And there's one more intercontinental flight we are looking for operated by Virgin Atlantic at this time nonstop into London Heathrow.....and now ANSWERED: Washington Dulles (IAD)

jrl767

1983 “fill-in-the-gap” questions -- last one! three remaining in full, one remaining in part

34A: ANSWERED Friends have talked you into joining them for a long weekend of hiking near Pyramid Lake. Given the spur-of-the-moment nature of the trip, you’re not surprised to find the only direct flight to Reno from Atlanta is sold out. You’ll limit yourself to one airline and one connection, but you decide to cover as much distance as possible on a single jet. This means you’ll have one multi-stop flight, and a connecting point that’s not on a normal ATL-RNO routing.

Please identify the airline, all stops in order including the connecting point, and the two types of aircraft involved.
EA, ATL-MCO AB3; MCO-IAH-LAS-RNO 72S

36A: Well now! Here’s a very unusual morning flight from Chicago to San Francisco — it makes six stops, and it also involves a change of gauge! Since your final destination is Los Angeles, you’re glad to see you can also ignore the usual flights on 727s, 737s, and MD-80s for the final leg to LAX. A 30-minute connection to a different airline can be a risky proposition at SFO, but the forecast for Monday afternoon leads you to believe you can catch a wide-body departure that's traditionally been an easy upgrade for a walk-up passenger. If you don’t make it, another airline offers three flights — all on the same jet that until recently hasn’t been a common sight in California — in a 30-minute period starting an hour later. And if none of those pan out, you’ll have time for a drink or two with a leisurely dinner before a flight on a wide-body type not often seen on domestic routes.

The usual suspects please: the airline for the first flight, the departure airport in the Chicago area, all intermediate stops in order, and the airport where the change of gauge occurs; also, all candidate airlines and equipment types for the SFO-LAX segment.

37A: ANSWERED Now you’re headed to a project kickoff in Galveston. Oops, not so fast ... after returning your rental car at Knoxville‘s McGhee Tyson airport, you notice the dreaded “See Agent” notation on the departures board line for your 410pm flight, as well as the next two for your connecting city. The counter agent says severe thunderstorms will cause rolling delays for the rest of the afternoon and evening, and offers you a routing through a different airport at 642pm that will put you into Houston at midnight. Once again, your pocket OAG comes to the rescue, revealing a 715pm connection on a different airline that arrives at 930pm, and the agent quickly endorses your ticket over.

We’re looking for the original airline, the original and alternate connecting cities, and the two equipment types (each routing involved the same aircraft on both legs). More importantly, we’re also looking for the other airline, the connecting city, and the two different aircraft types involved on the routing you’ll actually fly (a bonus point for relevant airport information as well).
as-booked:
TYS-ATL-IAH, DL, L10s

alternate:
TYS-CVG-IAH, DL, 72Ss

as-flown:
TYS-MEM-HOU, RC, DC9/D9S

38A: ANSWERED You’ve arranged to rendezvous with a colleague for an early afternoon scenic flight to Grand Canyon before a dinner meeting in Boulder City. There’s a 1040am nonstop from SJC that lands at LAS at 1155am, but what’s the fun in that? Hmmmmm ... here’s a 733am departure that starts an intriguing three-segment itinerary featuring aircraft with two, three, and four engines. Can you change airlines at a major airport in 36 minutes? Sure; then you’ll spend about that much time in the air on the second segment, and you’ll still arrive into LAS at noon.

Please identify the airline and equipment on the nonstop, as well as the two connecting cities, three airlines, and three equipment types on your less direct route.
SJC-LAS is a Sunworld DC-9-10
SJC-SFO is a TWA 727-200
SFO-RNO is a United DC-8-61
RNO-LAS is a Pacific Express BAC One-Eleven

KT550

Could it be Lagos (LOS)

WHBM

As suspected here in the UK, part of shunting Virgin Atlantic's cash around. The UK government is not going to bail them out just to see USD 200m of it wafted off to Delta due to some "earlier agreement". Meanwhile they also have to pay a very hefty fee each year just to "use the Virgin brand" to Virgin Group, who in turn have to pay a fee to Virgin Group Holdings Ltd, based in the British Virgin islands, who just happen to "own the brand", all of which manages to make the accounts for Virgin Atlantic Airlines, based in the UK, appear to have "just broken even". Again.

OskiBear

I'll go out on a limb for RNO-LAS and guess it was Eastern Airlines with a 757-200

jlemon

Great guess! However, it wasn't Lagos. Please guess again, sir!

And you might want to look west across the pond from Heathrow......