jlemon

52. Nope, but you are getting closer...

Bonus quiz item: Cathay Pacific is correct! Here are the complete westbound scheds...

CX 261: Hong Kong (HKG) 23:10 - 05:35 (+1) Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) 06:45 - 06:55 London Gatwick (LGW)
Freq: Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays only
Equip: 744
Service classes: F/J/Y
Note: Discontinued after Oct. 25

CX 261: Hong Kong (HKG) 22:45 - 06:00 Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) 07:45 - 07:40 London Heathrow (LHR)
Freq: Saturdays only
Equip: 744
Service classes: F/J/Y
Note: Effective Nov. 1

jlemon

If there is a traffic restriction, the OAG will usually list it. You will see a note beneath the flight listing that reads NO LOCAL TRAFFIC or CONDITIONAL STOPOVER TRAFFIC. With regard to a recent quiz item posed by yours truly, the latter note appears under the flight for the Lufthansa 747 service operated between Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) and Houston Intercontinental (IAH). And the CONDITIONAL STOPOVER TRAFFIC note also appears under flights operated by Air New Zealand, Garuda, Korean and Qantas between Honolulu (HNL) and Los Angeles (LAX) back in 1994.

The quiz items I've submitted concerning B747-300 and B747-400 service operated between various European cities and London Gatwick and London Heathrow by airlines not based in Europe do not have any restrictions listed with their respective OAG flight information. Therefore, I believe these various airlines were permitted to carry local traffic between these European points on a fifth freedom basis. These fifth freedom traffic rights also permitted United to carry local traffic between London and Frankfurt on their B727-200 flights. At least that's my understanding of the matter concerning an air carrier not based in either country having permission to transport passengers between two different countries on a fifth freedom basis and if anyone else has anything to add (paging WHBM), please do so!

A current example of fifth freedom traffic rights being exercised can be found in the current nonstop service operated between Vancouver (YVR) and New York Kennedy (JFK) by Cathay Pacific. These CX flights are extensions, of course, of service from and back to Hong Kong with the airline being permitted to carry local traffic between YVR and JFK.

BTW, even though Qantas for example was not permitted to carry local traffic between LAX and HNL and thus was only permitted to carry conditional stopover traffic between these two U.S. points, I was able to travel on QF between LAX and HNL back when I lived in Honolulu. So how did I do this? I was an airline employee at the time (I was the Director of Marketing for Mahalo Air, an interisland air carrier operating ATR 42 equipment) and was traveling on a non-revenue space available (NRSA) basis via a pass. And it was quite nice to fly in business class on board QF B747-300 aircraft between HNL and LAX back then!

Seat 2A

67. Only one airline was operating nonstop service from Aruba (AUA) to Houston (IAH) at this time with the service being operated three days a week. Name the air carrier and the aircraft type. The airline was VIASA. Still looking for the equipment which wasn't an A300, B767-200, DC-10-30 or any other wide body aircraft type nor was it an MD-80.

VIASA used to operate a 727-200. Let's go with that. If not that, possibly they brought the 880 out of mothballs and ... never mind...

71. This airline was operating the only direct service from New Orleans (MSY) to Portland, Maine (PWM) at this time with two stops being made en route. Identify the air carrier, both stops and the equipment. The airline was United operating a B737-300 with the first stop being made at ORD. Still looking for the second stop which was made east of New York state in a nearby state.

Two cities come to mind - Albany, NY and Burlington, VT. Albany makes more sense to me, but I can speak from personal experience when I say United once flew ORD-ALB-PWM because I flew the route aboard a 727-200 back in 1986. Since we're looking east of the Empire State, let's hop across Lake Champlain and go with Burlington, VT.

BTW, you've all covered United's 1980s presence in Seattle's South Satellite quite nicely. I might add that with the formation of the Star Alliance, you would also occasionally see departing flights from fellow *A carriers SAS, Air Canada and Thai International. As was mentioned earlier, these foreign carriers (with the possible exception of Air Canada where US Customs might have been performed in Canada) arrived at the South Satellite where US Customs was located.

jlemon

67. Correct! Here's the northbound sched operated by VIASA....

VA 836: Aruba (AUA) 9:30a - 1:45p Houston (IAH)
Freq: Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays only
Equip: B727-200
Service classes: J/Y
Meal service: Breakfast
Note: VA 836 originated in Caracas (CCS)

71. Ah, the stop was not made in Burlington or Albany. And I would be looking east of Albany......

Seat 2A

Alright then - Manchester, NH. I once flew through there aboard a United 727-100 inbound from Providence. Nice little airport...

jlemon

71. Well, it wasn't Manchester....but since you just happened to mention Providence.....

UA 1036: New Orleans (MSY) 4:50p - 7:15p Chicago O'Hare (ORD) 7:55p - 10:59p Providence (PVD) 11:24p - 12:07a Portland (PWM)
Freq: Daily
Equip: B737-300
Meal service: Dinner in F, Snack in Y MSY-ORD

Portland, Maine has a nice little airport as well....and there are lots of places in town that serve excellent lobstah.

jlemon

And we are on the home stretch here. I'll let these sit out there until tomorrow evening and then provide the answers.

jrl767

YVR Cockroach

I will guess this was a partial oil route. CO flying CCS-IAH-SEA with an MD-80

One airline that did fly to LGW at least a few years earlier was Philippine Airlines.

teddybear99

As I see another guess above, I will say the missing stop is ORD and on a 757.

jlemon

47. Yes, indeed, Orlando is the missing stop. However, the equipment wasn't a B737-300 so please guess again.

jlemon

39. That is an excellent guess! However, the airline wasn't Continental, the stop was not made anywhere near Houston (IAH) and the equipment was larger than an MD-80.

52. Nope, it wasn't Philippine Airlines. Please guess again sir!

WHBM

Hello from a cold, wild, stormy, horizontal-blowing rain winter Sunday in London. Even hail. Does the tourist board here put such photographs on their website ?

These intercontinental airline operations in Europe are much reduced nowadays compared to their peak time, probably in the 1960s, but a few still remain, and even get added to from time to time by ever-expanding carriers like Emirates or Ethiopian. From earlier times, when aircraft had neither the range nor the demand for throughout runs with a full load, the major European long haul operators like BOAC or Air France had hopped across Asia or South America, putting off passengers but also picking up others. So if you wanted to go from Beirut to Bombay, or Hong Kong to Tokyo, you would find at one time that these carriers provided much of the service, only slowly being accompanied and then replaced by the local operators. And when the airlines from these countries started running into Europe, the same applied. Reciprocity.

In truth, they didn't actually pick up a lot of such local traffic in Europe, so it wasn't much to worry about. And they didn't market the service particularly, although if you noticed them in the ABC timetable you could book them. Frequency on the individual legs was low, down to once a week, so they rarely fitted people's needs. A further issue was their unpunctuality at the end of a long flight. You could book Qantas instead of BEA from Frankfurt to London, leaving at the same time, but the chances of it being on time instead of 6 hours late were way less. The main aspect was that Qantas inbound flight would not have sufficient demand to operate straight into London, so stopping at say Rome and Frankfurt enabled them to cover more points from Australia. They might also hope to have some demand along the way, say from Singapore to Europe, but any local European traffic was just an incidental bonus.This was actually in contrast to the European carriers who had always got significant traffic far away. For a long time the most effective routing between Africa and Asia was by BOAC, changing planes at Cairo between the two major branches of their services. This had been so since pre-WW2 days when the Imperial Airways flying boats had a similar junction at nearby Alexandria.

A poignant moment was the Turkish DC-10 in 1973, operating Istanbul-Paris-London. This normally carried less than 100 through passengers on the last leg to London. A chance strike on BEA, which led to cancelling two of their morning flights from Paris to London, both fully booked following a major international Rugby game in Paris, saw the DC-10 filled right up with BEA passengers readily transferred from these flights. No problem with traffic rights. This was the aircraft which crashed, all seats taken, after departure from Paris when a cargo hatch blew out.

jlemon

41. Yep, United was operating a B757-222 on the route from SFO to POS. And as you can see above in my response to jrl767, the missing stop we were looking for is Orlando. Here's the sched...

UA 869: San Francisco (SFO) 6:10a - 9:33a Denver (DEN) 10:30a - 4:03p Orlando (MCO) 4:48p - 5:40p Miami (MIA) 6:35p - 10:05p (est.) Caracas (CCS) 10:45p (est.) - 11:57p Port of Spain (POS)
Freq: Daily
Equip: 757
Meal services: Breakfast SFO-DEN, Lunch DEN-MCO, Dinner MIA-CCS
Note: Local traffic permitted CCS-POS

jlemon

Thank you for your usual excellent commentary specifically with regard to the ability of international air carriers not based in Europe to carry local traffic between European cities. I was hoping to not get into too much trouble with my comments on this subject and it appears I have escaped unscathed.......

And your weather definitely does not sound boring to say the least! Our WX here is rather benign and downright pleasant at the moment. The forecast for tomorrow is partly cloudy with a high of 68 degrees F - not too shabby for late January. However, our weather is also forecast to change dramatically during the next 48 hours courtesy of an Arctic cold front that is advancing in our direction from Canada. Our local NWS office is now issuing advisories for snow showers here in south Louisiana this Tuesday morning as the cold front passes over our region. We may see low temperatures in the mid 20s F in the LFT area in the wake of the front by this Wednesday morning which would be our coldest weather thus far this season. And it also looks like I've got just a enough firewood left to get us through this winter weather event.