jrl767

one of our younger teammates recently mentioned being thrilled to see a few questions from years beginning with “2” :

I stopped by an Airline Collectibles show at a DC-area hotel on one of my work trips ~2018; tempted as I was to acquire an old OAG or two, my shoulder bag only had room to slide a handful of 1998-99 timetables around the two laptops because four still-filled and well-wrapped KLM Delft houses took up the remaining space in my rollaboard


the timetables have just been taking up space on a shelf in my home office, so I think this (well, when I get back to my laptop) will be as good a time as any to post a couple questions from that time period that I developed over the holidays ...

jrl767

and here, as promised / threatened, are my two from the summer of 1999 ... hope that's close enough for you; of course anyone else who wants to participate in the guessing is welcome

S99A- On your way to Malmö on a Tuesday evening, you’ve arranged to meet up with friends for cocktails and dinner at your departure airport before your 830pm flight. You’ve booked an intriguing connection; the overnight flight, to a relatively small European airport, is on a jet that isn’t particularly common on transatlantic flights, and you’ll arrive at the major airport nearest Malmö aboard a model that only saw 63 examples produced. The two airlines code-share on the long haul, so you actually have an online connection.

First thing Monday, you’re “voluntold” to attend an urgent 730am meeting at a client’s Grosse Pointe office on Tuesday morning. Obviously, the price of a next-day ticket to Europe from the nearest major airport to that office is prohibitive, so you book a 140pm return flight that gives you just over five hours before your originally ticketed flight. By the 930am coffee break you realize that the meeting is not running smoothly, and you’re in serious jeopardy of making that flight; worse, there’s no space on either that airline’s departure at 305pm or another airline’s at 255pm. While each airline has a flight around 5pm, they both arrive with less than two hours to make your transatlantic connection, never mind dinner. You are, however, pleased to find a workable option that gives you an additional half hour or so to wrap things up before heading to the airport. While the airline you’ll now be flying doesn’t have any interline ticketing agreements, so you’ll have to write off the price of the return ticket, you’ll nevertheless have almost an extra half hour to collect your baggage and re-check it for the flights to Malmö. Please identify the three airlines you’ll be flying, the three aircraft types, and all relevant airports.

DET-EWR Pro Air 737-400
EWR-BSL Swissair A310
BSL-CPH Crossair Saab 2000

S99B- You’re about to head out for dim sum with a longtime friend on a Sunday afternoon in Beijing when your pager buzzes insistently, and you see a series of pings from the Eastern Europe regional director and other staff. When you call, the director informs you about a developing crisis on the Timisoara project. "How soon can you be there?" A few minutes later you call back with a surprising answer: “On a flight arriving 905 tomorrow (Monday) morning.” You’ll even have an online connection. The flight from the connecting airport to TSR makes one stop, and is aboard what appears to be the last commercial services of its type on this airline (if not anywhere in the world). We are of course seeking the usual suspects: the airline, both aircraft types, and the connecting airport; bonus points for the enroute stop on the second flight.

PEK-OTP TAROM A310
OTP-CLJ-TSR TAROM BAC One-Eleven Series 500

strickerj

I don't see a departure airport mentioned, but this one sounds like Continental's 757-200 service from Newark (EWR) to various smaller markets in Western Europe. They were partners with SAS, which had the very low production 737-600, so I'll say that was the connecting flight. That just leaves the connection point - shall we try Birmingham (BHX)?

jrl767

this is a very astute and well-considered guess

EWR indeed has a place in the answer, but both BHX as a small connecting airport and the 736 — while very plausible, considering the production total of 69 jets — for the short intra-European leg are incorrect

additionally, neither CO, SAS, nor a 757-200 for the TATL flight are correct

as for the actual departure and arrival airports, I will invoke our esteemed Quizmeister Seat 2A — “please, guess again!”

strickerj

In that case, the EWR-DUS A319CJ flight operated by Privatair for Lufthansa would seem to fit the bill, but I don't believe that was operating until after 9/11. If it isn't that, then I got nothing for now...

jrl767

today marks the 60th anniversary of the first flight of the Convair 990

however, the author of the article is clearly not an old-timer, as can be seen in the second paragraph where the code for Swissair appears as LX (today’s code for successor Swiss) rather than the actual designator which was SR

jrl767

well, neither DUS, LH, nor an A319 are correct

the full routing is XXX-EWR-YYY-ZZZ; YYY is neither BHX nor DUS, the TATL carrier is neither CO nor LH, and the TATL equipment is actually a wide-body

YVR Cockroach

S99A

Making a guess that this was a truck and auto parts route. Not 100% sure of the TATL and European route/airlines though

DTW-EWR on a NW DC-9-30
EWR-STR on a Lufthansa A340-200
connecting to German Airwyas via HAM on a Dornier 228 (rare enough but German AIrways codesharing with LH on the TATL?)

jrl767

I’m not at all sure of “truck and auto parts route”

given that the meeting is in Grosse Pointe, the NW D9S operating DTW-EWR would seem to be a reasonable guess (in fact it was the original 140pm flight); however all three elements are incorrect for the as-flown

strickerj guessed that Privatair operated the TATL A319 flight on behalf of LH, but in my response I erroneously stated that LH was not the operator of record ... that oversight is now moot, since I can explicitly state that LH is incorrect ... the A340, the Do-228, German Airways, STR as the connecting point, and HAM as a major airport close to Malmö are also incorrect

on the plus side, you have correctly discerned that the codeshare flight from the connecting point to the destination was aboard a turboprop

Spongthrush

S99A. Excuse my stream of consciousness ramble, but....working backwards, now I’m fairly sure that Malmo’s own airport is further away from the city than Copenhagen across the bridge....so I reckon the final airport is CPH.

I think that the TATL connection to CPH would have to be either a BAe ATP or Saab2000, both of which had a short production run.

Now if a Saab 2000 then Crossair, Cityjet and SAS spring to mind. If Crossair, then the transatlantic would presumably be Swissair on a DC-10 or MD-11 but these would be from JFK not EWR. But thinking of MD-11s, then Finnair springs to mind and I think they used to fly from Newark. World used to fly MD-11s for Aer Lingus in the 90s from EWR so that’s a possibility too. But I’ll guess HEL as the transatlantic connection.

The Michigan origin is an interesting one, the obvious place would be DTW (I’m wondering whether Windsor CYQG had some scheduled service to Europe but....). Did ATA fly DTW-EWR perhaps? I’ll guess ATA B727-200.

In summary
DTW-EWR-HEL-CPH ATA B727-200, Finnair MD-11 and SAS Saab 2000?

jrl767

very nicely done!

the arrival airport is indeed CPH, and the final leg is indeed on a Saab 2000; ATA is a good guess considering the stated lack of interline arrangements, but it’s incorrect (as is the 72S for the initial leg) ... further, HEL, AY, and the MD-11 are also in the “liabilities” column of the ledger

Spongthrush

S99A how about this then

DTW-EWR-BSL-CPH

DTW-EWR Northwest BAe146
EWR-BSL. Swissair A310-300 (how this was ever profitable I have no idea!)
BSL-CPH. Crossair Saab 200

jrl767

almost there ... other than the fact that we already know the first leg wasn’t NW or ATA out of DTW, and didn’t involve either a D9S or a 72S; we can now also eliminate the ARJ

the remainder of the itinerary — EWR-BSL-CPH, a Swissair A310 connecting to a Crossair Saab 2000 — is entirely correct

Spongthrush

S99A DTW-EWR. Spirit D93 ?

jrl767

the airline was not Spirit, and the aircraft was not built in Long Beach

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spongthrush

the obvious place would be DTW (I’m wondering whether Windsor CYQG had some scheduled service to Europe but....)

I had not considered YQG ... but take another look at the entire question narrative, keeping in mind the geography of the greater Detroit area