Seat 2A

Seat 2A

Here are the remaining questions.

Go get 'em, boys!


THE TIMELINE FOR THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS IS 1987

46. You are enjoying the sand and surf in sunny Nassau when the boss calls and says he needs you to fly up to cloudy Akron, Ohio A.S.A.P. Turning to your trusty pocket flight guide, you’re surprised and delighted to discover that a single two stop direct flight is offered in this market. Identify the airline, the aircraft utilized and the two enroute stops you’ll make along the way

47. During the latter half of 1987 only one airline was operating scheduled nonstop flights between Canada and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Flights operated twice weekly from a single Canadian city, but with a different aircraft type each day. Identify the airline, the Canadian city it departed from and the two different aircraft types operated on the route.

48. Following yet another hectic commute into the city on the Long Island Expressway, you’re pleasantly surprised when you find a message on your answering machine from an old business associate asking if you can join her for a weekend of sunshine and golf at the exclusive Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. A quick call to your travel agent reveals a thrice weekly jet flight from JFK into the nearby airport at Greenbrier (LWB). Identify the airline and the aircraft used on this flight.

49. If you wanted to fly out of Bakersfield, California aboard a McDonnell-Douglas DC-9-10, only one airline fits the bill with a single daily flight. Identify that airline and the city you’d be flying to.
A N S W E R E D

51. Five airlines operate mainline jet service between Long Island’s MacArthur Airport (ISP) and the three Washington DC area airports. Three airlines serve Washington Dulles (IAD), one serves Washington National (DCA) and one serves Baltimore (BWI). Identify each airline and the airport it serves.
A N S W E R E D

52. You’ve just won a porcupine grooming contest in Fredericksburg, Virginia! Awright!! Your prize: a pair of new gloves and a long weekend at the Hilton Rose Hall in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Unfortunately your prize doesn’t include airfare from your home in Alexandria, Virginia to Jamaica. Well, dang! Further complicating your travel plans is that your wife refuses to fly on Air Jamaica. It’s a long story… Imagine then your surprise and delight upon discovering an airline that flies nonstop between Washington Dulles and Montego Bay twice weekly on Thursdays and Sundays. The southbound flight on Thursday is operated in an all economy configuration while the northbound flight on Sunday uses a different aircraft type and offers both First Class and Coach. Identify the airline and the respective aircraft it employs on each flight.

55. Fresh off a snowy week of work in Edmonton, Alberta, you’ve been informed that your next assignment lies south of the border – two borders, in fact – way down yonder in sunny Monterrey, Mexico. Fully expecting a convoluted itinerary involving multiple connections, you’re flabbergasted when your travel department informs you that there’s a direct flight making three enroute stops from Edmonton all the way down to Monterrey. Additionally there’s a change of equipment at the first stop, from a smaller aircraft to a larger one. Identify the airline, the enroute stops and the two aircraft to be flown along the way.

60. When it comes to travel from England, Canada is well served with eight cities receiving nonstop flights from London. Identify each Canadian city and the airline(s) providing nonstop service to it from London.
A N S W E R E D

62. The only nonstop service between Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands and London Gatwick is via a single weekly 767 flight. Identify the airline.
A N S W E R E D

63. Three airlines each operate a single daily flight between Boston and London. Each flight is operated with a different widebodied jetliner, each built by a different manufacturer. Identify each airline and the respective widebody it flew.
A N S W E R E D

70. You’ve just spent a week in Hawaii. It’s been fun but, with a week left in your vacation you’d like to go somewhere a bit less touristy. But only a bit. How about Tahiti? Consulting your trusty OAG, you discover not one, not two but THREE airlines that offer nonstop service between Honolulu and Papeete. Identify each airline and the respective aircraft it operated on this route.

73. Egyptair operated a one stop flight twice a week between Cairo and New York JFK. Where was the enroute stop made and what type of aircraft was used?

75. This airline operated an L-1011 every day except Tuesday and Thursday between Brussels and New York JFK. Which airline is it?

77. A planned ski vacation in the Catskills is rudely interrupted when you receive a call on Friday afternoon informing you that your services are required in Monrovia, Liberia. As soon as possible, please. Right. A quick call to your company travel department reveals a First Class seat is available aboard this airline’s once weekly nonstop service, departing JFK on Saturday afternoon. Identify the airline and the equipment used.

81. If you were to fly into Orlando on a DC-8-61/63 operated by a foreign carrier, which airline would you be flying on and from which foreign airport would your flight have originated?


WHBM Bonus Question: What was the last domestic scheduled flight in the British Isles that required a flight engineer and a 3-man crew ?

WHBM

There was a large programme of holiday flights on this route, which very slowly started to appear as scheduled flights. One of the earliest to do this was Britannia Airways, also one of the few European operators of the 767-200. I'll go for them.

Seat 2A

WHBM

In part depends on the month; traffic on UK-Canada has always been very seasonal, and also notably deficient in premium traffic, although this last is starting to change from the dominance of "visiting Grandma" type traffic. There are still charters from the UK to Canada, back in the 1960s-90s they were almost as dominant as schedules.

8 points from London. Let's say St Johns (assuming the transfer from Gander had taken place by then); Halifax; Montreal; Ottawa; Toronto; Calgary; Edmonton and Vancouver. And the carriers are from Heathrow Air Canada to all, BA to Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, and recent arrival Wardair, operating from Gatwick to Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver. Wardair's operations were just a make-up of their long-established charters to scheduled operation.

Seat 2A

WHBM

I find that this is far more of an issue for old schedules here in the UK than in the USA, where services have for long been dominated by what I would call commercial city-to-city scheduled services, right back to the pioneer air-mail days, with consistent all year operations. To tell the truth, UK historic timetables outside the summer period are generally not worthwhile collecting because so much service is missing compared to summertime. This reflects right through to aircraft and airport usage figures, and load factors. Heathrow is a slight exception, but even Gatwick and Stansted are way down in wintertime, and airports like East Midlands that are notably busy with summer holiday traffic can seem desolate on a winter afternoon. Many of the holiday airlines actually have longstanding arrangements with US and (in particular) Canadian equivalents, who have a winter peak of traffic to the Caribbean etc, to transfer their aircraft over for several months from November to April.

If you work for many UK airlines, you just don't get any summer holiday at all, you get to make it up in November and February.

Seat 2A

WHBM Bonus Question: What was the last domestic scheduled flight in the British Isles that required a flight engineer and a 3-man crew?

If it's not a Trident, then I'm thinking of British 727 operators of which there sure weren't many, especially in scheduled service.

After a couple cups of coffee on this cloudy afternoon here at 65°N, it suddenly came to me that BA operated a 727-100 at some point in the late eighties. It wore a hybrid livery - mostly ATA as I recall. I have a postcard of it. In any event, I have no idea what route it may have been operated on or why BA even leased an aircraft so different from anything else in their fleet. The -100's not a very big plane. Maybe they used it for extra capacity on a heavily travelled route like London - Manchester or up to Scotland somewhere...

jlemon

47. I'll guess Arrow Air operating between San Juan and Montreal with Boeing 727-200 and Douglas DC-8-61 ("stretch eight") aircraft.

jrl767

how about US Air to DCA, and Continental to BWI ... as for three to IAD, perhaps New York Air, United, and Eastern

about the only DC-9-10 operator in the western U.S. that comes to mind is Sunworld, which says the destination would have likely been Las Vegas (second guess Reno)

WHBM

Yes, BA did lease a 727 from ATA for a short while in 1988, and again in 1990, to cover some unserviceability in the fleet (and they are doing similar today, having borrowed a London City Embraer 190 at Gatwick to cover things). But it never appeared in the timetable, just operating as a "backup" aircraft as required on the no-reservations Shuttle flights from Heathrow to Scotland. Used an ATA crew, and we wouldn't normally count such oddball borrowings.

No, question refers to a longstanding scheduled domestic service for the type. It was a widebody. And, as the previous hint said, the aircraft was mentioned in recent posts here.

WHBM

I would think the Wardair flights to Edmonton/Calgary all continued to Vancouver, as indeed many of the AC ones to these points did as well. Although Toronto and Vancouver were long the two main points for Wardair, Edmonton was actually their home town, and I believe Max Ward, in his 90s now, who lives there, still owns a De Havilland Dash 8 personally and is current on flying it.

There were a couple of other points which had service at other times. Winnipeg had nonstop Air Canada flights from back in the 1960s, with DC8s, but this demand somehow drained away and there haven't been services there for a long time, unlike the other points. Victoria BC (yes, really) had an Air Canada 767 flight for a year or two. One of the long-gone charter operators, Nationair I think, had a go at schedules with Super DC8s from London to Hamilton ON, a sort of Toronto outlier. And then of course there had been Gander.

Air Canada have always sent a full mix of their fleet, you can even see their A319 at Heathrow nowadays, coming from St Johns, Newfoundland, to the amazement of those it taxies past who say "what THAT small plane came from Canada ?". On a good jetstream day it's only about 4 hours flying time from St Johns to London. I've more than once looked at the day's AC schedule from Heathrow to Toronto, their big route, and the four or five flights were each with a different aircraft type.

WHBM

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Seat 2A

Seat 2A