Track

There are several cities in Europe which offered 2-stop 747 flights to Hong Kong, e.g., Zurich, Frankfurt, Paris and London, but I can find only one which can be reached by a non-stop, wide-bodied plane from Nice: London-Heathrow. That's a bit out of the way and inelegant, but at least it satisfies the suggestion of a bit of a "backtrack." Paris and AF are out, even though it offers the wide-bodied connection (in the 1978 OAG), and others have only 737s and CVLs from Nice (or Marseille or even Milan, if the cycler is energetic). The great allure, of course, is to find a connection to HKG on a PA or TW round-the-world flight. Unfortunately Pan Am did not serve Nice and had no feeder flights from there to one of its hubs, and TWA, although it did serve Nice and Hong Kong, probably did not do so in 1983, and any online connection to HKG is doubtful. And in any case the PA and TW flights made more stops on the way than the allowed two. So I offer:
BE Tristar-100 Nice-Heathrow, connecting to
BA 747-200 Heathrow-Hong Kong via some place in the Gulf and India, let's say Bahrain and Calcutta (The 1978 OAG lists both BE and BA as "British Airways," so I think an online connection is valid)

How to get from HKG to Guam via Saipan when CO (no longer called Air Micronesia) is out? How about the obscure Air Nauru, which flew to Hong Kong and to Guam, and could have stopped off in Saipan, as it's right on the way HKG-SPN-GUM-INU and is the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands? Air Nauru also flew 727-100s, so that's my suggestion.

jrl767

I must say you’ve done an outstanding job of channeling our illustrious friend WHBM in terms of providing entertaining and enlightening discourse about the possible aircraft and routings

I’m only a tiny bit surprised that the term “inelegant” had never before made an appearance in this thread, but the remainder of the context in which you used it is entirely CORRECT — the first leg is indeed NCE-LHR aboard a BA L10

while both the BA 747 and ON 727 are also CORRECT, you have been working off an erroneous supposition about “the allowed two” stops — the BA flight did not stop at either BAH or CCU, but more importantly HKG-SPN at ~2100 entirely overwater miles was probably uncomfortably far (if not illegal in terms of engine-out range) for a 727

so we’re looking for LHR-XXX-HKG followed by HKG-YYY-SPN-GUM

Track

The LHR-HKG flight is probably the one via Bombay, which, incidentally, I booked for the BOM-HKG segment on Christmas Day, 1981. Upon boarding I saw that a large group of Girl Guides had decorated the cabin with tinsel and Christmas tree ornaments. As soon as we took off they started singing Christmas carols, and I dreaded the next 6 hours of banal Christmas cheer when all I wanted was a restful week away from the office (yes, I am a Christmas grinch). Fortuitously, though, one of the engines soon blew out, and we had to circle and return to Bombay, where BA put us up for the day in a very comfortable hotel with a wonderful buffet. They then booked me on an overnight Air India 747 flight Bombay-Delhi-Bangkok-Hong Kong. I returned on Cathay Pacific's inaugural HKG-BKK-BOM flight (on a L10) .
I suspect the Air Nauru flight went via Manila before reaching Saipan and Guam.

WHBM

Colleague, must have been early 1980s, was going to Nice, and booked on the BA Tristar; they had never been on a widebody before, but were disappointed that the flight was eventually operated by a BA Trident 3 and a One-Eleven (the latter taken from the domestic Shuttle backup fleet) instead, running a few minutes apart. The first six BA Tristars were the original BEA order, and were fitted out for European rather than intercontinental operation.

For the Air Nauru 727, what might be illegal in the USA is not necessarily elsewhere. We discussed Air Nauru a while ago, operated effectively by staff at pretty much all levels on secondment from Ansett in Australia, they did the dispatch and everything. Just about all their wide-ranging flights were small island to small island, which they managed fine over a long time. Incidentally, I was in Hong Kong just a few years ago and there on the next stand was a United 737-800, nonstop to Guam, so the capability for intermediate types is there.

jlemon

And once upon a time, Continental via their Air Micronesia division (Continental Micronesia a.k.a "Air MIke") operated 727-200 service between Guam and Hong Kong.

I remember arriving into Kai Tak on board a Delta L-1011-500 from LAX via a stop in ANC and seeing a CO Micronesia 72S at the one of the gates.

https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/9952633

Interesting to note this particular airplane was previously operated by Singapore Airlines and later by Alaska Airlines.

In 1994, CO Micronesia was operating three flights a week with 72S equipment from Hong Kong to Guam including two nonstops with the third service making an en route intermediate stop at Saipan. And I do not believe there was anything illegal concerning the latter flight.

jlemon

This quiz question reminds me of a focus city operation operated by Delta back in 1976. So here's a bonus quiz item.

At this time, Delta was operating nonstop service into the airport in question from thirteen (13) other airports. Delta was also operating direct, no change of plane service into the airport we are looking for from twenty-five (25) additional airports. All of these flights were operated on a daily basis with mainline jet equipment with three different aircraft types being used. And here's a hint: the airport in question did not serve a major metropolitan area.

Name this airport and for bonus points identify the three different aircraft types. ANSWERED

kochleffel

I flew People Express only once, EWR-CLE. I have vivid and mostly unpleasant memories, but what I want to share is the landing announcement: "Please check the overhead compartments for any personal belongs or small children you may have placed there."

jrl767

wrt jlemon’s bonus q —
from what I recall of Delta’s route system in the mid-70s, they had substantial operations at both New Orleans/MSY and Memphis/MEM; while not comparable to LA/SF/NY, either would certainly seem to qualify as a “major metropolitan area” (populations ~1M and 0.75M respectively)

in terms of equipment, MEM was far more likely to be the one with only three mainline jet types (DC-8-50, DC-9-30, and 727-200) as MSY probably also saw the DC-8-60 and the L-1011

jlemon

So what's your guess here?

jrl767

ah’m all shook up ah fergot t’add somethin’ about “the home of Lisa Marie (N880EP, nee Delta’s N8809E)” to make it clear ah’m referrin’ to MEM

jlemon

Bonus: It wasn't Memphis which had a population in excess of 730,000 folks in 1976. So the city served by the airport in question had a population quite a bit less than Memphis back then.

BTW, Delta wasn't serving MEM with the DC-8 at this time although the airline was operating 727-200 and DC-9-30 service. And DL was also operating L-1011 service into MEM in 1976 with two daily nonstops, one from ATL and the other from ORD.

Track

I flew this route across southern Asia once again, in 1992, when I had completed my assignment in Bujumbura and was scheduled to return to the U.S. As a government employee I had to abide by the rules of the Fly America Act, which meant departing from and arriving in the U.S. on an American carrier and booking government contract fares - where available. There was no contract fare from Bujumbura to the U.S. and no one there capable of booking it from Europe. That meant that I had the full-fare, economy-class fare to use, which was a lot. The local Ethiopian Airlines staff was able to get me a business-class fare to New York via Bombay and Osaka, where I wanted to visit friends, for just a couple of hundred dollars more than the full-fare BJM-JFK fare (I tried to avoid Washington). Ethiopian upgraded me to first class on their 3-class 757 Bujumbura-Kigali-Addis Ababa, and then I flew on an ET 767 to Bombay, a Swissair 747 (300?) to Hong Kong, an Air France 747-400 to Osaka and a Northwest 747-400 to New York. This last flight was interesting, as it had come from Australia, on an unusual NW route.

Herb687

Sounds like Shreveport. I know that at one point in time SHV had a Crown Room lounge. And with DL's milk runs all around the Southeast it wouldn't be tough to find 12 other dots on the map.

SHV with 727, 72S, and DC9?

moondog

1976 sounds a bit to early for my guess, but I'm going to throw it out there anyway: XNA.

jrl767

I’m hard pressed to think of eight nonstop destinations from SHV, never mind 12 … otoh, Birmingham/BHM (population ~0.5M) would be a bit easier to believe, with 72S/D9S/D8S services