jlemon

30. Ah, it wasn't Delta and equipment flown from Kansas City wasn't a B727-200.

However, you have correctly guessed the connecting airport: Boston (BOS).

jlemon

31. - BONUS: Indeed, it was an Ilyushin Il-96 (I think it was a series -300 as well according to the OAG and the aircraft code was IL9). These were long flights as I believe the distance between SEA and SVO is around 5,200 miles. Here are the scheds.....

SU 324: Seattle (SEA) 22:50 - 20:20+1 Moscow (SVO)
Freq: Mondays only
Service classes: F/C/Y
Meal service: Da!
Equip: IL9

SU 324: Seattle (SEA) 21:00 - 18:30+1 Moscow (SVO)
Freq: Fridays only
Service classes: F/C/Y
Meal service: Da!
Equip: IL9

I remember looking out of the window at the Delta Crown Room at SEA many years ago and seeing this big whale of a four engine airplane landing. I had never seen an Ilyushin Il-96 before. And later on while changing terminals via the underground people mover, I found myself sharing the car with the Aeroflot flight crew and attendants. The attractive young lady flight attendants were chatting away merrily in Russian and seemed to be very excited to have a layover in Seattle.

TPJ

23. USAfrica Airways

You can believe or not, but I have not googled it out, somehow the name magically appeared in my memory (OK - googled to confirm it was Airways, not Airlines). Aircraft type was MD-11.

jlemon

23. Correct! The two MD-11 airplanes were leased from American. USAfrica Airways operated service between Washington Dulles and Johannesburg and Cape Town reportedly via refueling stops in the Cape Verde Islands. I think they were in business for less than a year.

Herb687

Ah, this must be Midwest Express then with a DC-9 on the MCI-BOS flight.

Seat 2A

Right - geographically I guess I was thinking Venezuela. Let's go with COPA Panama operating its Electra out of Panama City

KT550

Then I'll try:

H.S. Trident

WHBM

All the production IL-96 were series 300. Back in the earlier 2000s I seem to have gone quite often to Heathrow on Saturday mornings to meet, or see off, the one flight a week by Russian airline Pulkovo from St Petersburg. Rest of the week they went to Gatwick. The gates they used were closest to the parking structure, and on the next gate was an Aeroflot IL-96 from Moscow. Rest of the week they used an A321, but the Saturday morning flight was busiest of the week and they used the big Ilyushin then. They were awkward gates to get aircraft into up at the inner end of the old Terminal 2, now demolished, but the Ilyushin crew seemed to manage fine. I used to deliberately park in the slots overlooking these airside gates to watch.

Down in the terminal, Pulkovo used the Air France check-in, with Aeroflot alongside, so quite a Russian scene. In charge on the Aeroflot side (where the pandemonium normally needed taking firm charge of) was their London terminal manager, Jeremy Spake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Spake . What a character. Came to prominence in a late 1990s BBC documentary TV programme on Heathrow airport with his extraordinary outgoing style. Also an aviation buff, wonder if he reads here. Jeremy came from east London and had accent accordingly, but his mother was Russian so he was fluent there as well, sometimes to people's surprise as he switched over, while others did "Oooh it's that man from the television programme".

Being well known from the TV series, at the year 2000 Millennium BBC television placed correspondents round the world to do little commentaries on how the festivities were going, and Jeremy went over to Moscow, with a couple of camera crew, to do the slot from Russia. All rehearsed. Couple of hours before midnight, Russian President Boris Yeltsin made a speech - and resigned. All political correspondents worldwide sprang into action. Who from the BBC was in Moscow to give an on-the-ground lowdown ? Nobody except poor old Jeremy, who was then thrust into pride of place on the main evening news for something he'd never done before, and in truth handled it very well. After all this died down, back to Aeroflot at Heathrow, and the IL-96 on Saturday mornings.

KT550

Fokker 100 for the TXL > LGW flight

jlemon

Off to our local BMW dealership this morning to get the rear Michelin Pilot Super Sport tires (tyres to some here) on the M4 replaced....and very thankfully under warranty due to premature wear (I wonder how that happened.... ).

They are superb tires but, man, are they bloody expensive! Shall reply to all of the new posts above when I return.

strickerj

Oh wow, that's the year my dad moved from Vancouver to Jackson to take a job (which paved the way for my parents to meet and me to be born a few years later). He drove, but I still feel compelled to take a stab at this, even though I really have no idea.

I seem to recall prior to the move, he took a couple trips to Houston for a conference, and it was a Continental DC-10 with a stop in DEN. But since there was limited transborder service then, I'm guessing he drove to SEA for this flight. In 1979, in the wake of deregulation, airlines were beginning to expand into new markets, but I'm thinking United was the only one in both Vancouver and Jackson at that point, so let's try a UA 727 via SEA, DEN, and ORD.

jrl767

1- prior to the jet age, flights traversing mid-latitude TATL routes generally stopped at Santa Maria (SMA) in the Azores; while there were some nonstop services to Europe from Recife (REC), many flights went via Dakar (DKR), but irrespective of that I have a very hard time picturing any airline operating MEX-XXX-REC-LIS

that said, the fact that there are a limited number of reasonable stopping points between MEX and SMA strongly suggests this flight was a Cubana L-1049G “Super G” Constellation, with the first two stops being Havana (HAV) and Bermuda (BDA)

jlemon

30. Correct! However, I screwed up here as the Virgin Atlantic flight actually arrived into London Gatwick - my apologies!

Here are the scheds....

YX 53 / VS* 6053: Kansas City (MCI) 2:00p - 6:00p Boston (BOS)
Freq: Daily except Saturdays
Service class: Y (but as previously discussed the one class cabin with 60 seats in a 2-2 configuration in the DC9 was more like business class)
Meal service: Lunch
Equip: DC9-10

Connecting to......

VS 121: Boston (BOS) 8:50p - 7:50a+1 London Gatwick (LGW)
Freq: Daily
Service classes: C/Y
Meal service: Dinner and I think Brunch
Equip: 747

I remember reading in one of the airline industry magazines (I think it was Air Transport World) back then an interview with Richard Branson who had very nice things to say concerning Midwest Express and the VS code sharing relationship with YX.

jlemon

14. Nope! And I would keep heading north and west from PTY.......

jlemon

15. Yep! Here's the sched.....

BA 5631: Inverness (INV) 8:05a - 9:30a London Heathrow (LHR)
Freq: Daily except Sundays
Equip: Trident

British Airways (at least I think BA was the operator) was also operating Vickers Viscount service from Inverness to London at this time. Here are those scheds.....

BA 5633: Inverness (INV) 10:55a - 12:55p London Heathrow (LHR)
Freq: Sundays only
Equip: Viscount

BA 5639: Inverness (INV) 5:25p - 7:25p London Heathrow (LHR)
Freq: Daily except Saturdays
Equip: Viscount