Very short experiment. In 1980, Eastern added the 280-seat, wide body Airbus A300 flights between New York LaGuardia and Boston; however as had happened earlier with the L-1011, the experiment was short lived. 265 seats was too big to achieve the required quick turnounds.

Some interesting information regarding the development of the Convair 540/580 and other variants can be found HERE.

Sounds like what PSA went through with the L-1011.....

I believe PSA acquired the TriStar because they thought United might operate the DC-10 between LAX and SFO in a dedicated shuttle service......which I don't think happened, at least in shuttle service.....

So PSA ended up trying to make "Mother Grinningbird" work on the LAX-SFO route (some flights operated LAX-SFO-SMF as well as SAN-LAX-SFO) and the aircraft was just way too big.........

I'd probably also consider adding Oxnard (OXR) even though it is kind of a technicality either way.

OXR had F-27 flights on Air West/Hughes Airwest in the late 60s/early 70s and later had commercial flights on other carriers. But today no regular scheduled commercial service.

OXR had a public charter start in September to LAS using Saab340s three times per week but it depends if someone considers a public charter to be counted as scheduled service. (I have heard recent rumors that the charter was already cancelling its service at OXR, can anyone verify?)

Always fascinating to see reminiscences like this. All justifications sound plausible except the last, for the Allegheny Convair 540s (and the type overall) had gone by early 1963. There were only ever seven of them, the two prototypes and five "production" aircraft converted from former United Cv340s. The two prototypes could be marginally described as new aircraft, they were built as 340s but never delivered. The first came over to Britain as early as November 1954, where it was registered G-ANVP, but it took until 1960 to get them into initial service with Allegheny.

After the 540 era was over all seven got retro-fitted back with piston engines, some were sold, others went into Allegheny's Cv580 turbo programme. All the Allegheny piston aircraft had been converted or sold well before 1974 as well.

Here's an article from the UK's professional Flight magazine from 1956, with a picture of prototype G-ANVP over typical English countryside (those fields couldn't be anywhere else). Note point 2 in the article, which says the Convair was designed from the outset for Allison turboprops to be fitted.

http://www.flightglobal.com/FlightPD...20-%201700.PDF

According to my dad, the Shah of Iran placed orders for a handful of A300s in the early 80s because he had his sites set on developing a network carrier, but those plans fizzled and Airbus was left hanging.

The big planes sort of worked with the shuttle model in those days because it meant that Eastern rarely had to fulfill its "we'll bring out an extra plane if it's full" pledge. I don't recall boarding/unloading taking an especially long time.

Boarding and deplaning was faster then because the planes weren't generally very full and people had less carry on in those days, when checked bags were free. I suspect also that the high regulated prices made air travel more elite, so those who did fly--especially shuttle routes--were frequent business travelers and knew what to do. One didn't often see families who traveled once a year in those days.

Pretty much how it was.

Airbus had a desperate time trying to sell the first A300s in the USA, eventually the first of the longer-range A300-B4 (N201EA and upwards) was delivered to Eastern in August 1977, and the fleet buildup began.

A couple of the shorter-range initial model A300-B2 were delivered to Iran Air in early 1978, and used on flights across the Gulf and to nearby countries. By the end of 1979 the leases weren't being paid due to the political turmoil, and Airbus got them back. They talked Eastern, who by now had experience of the aircraft, to taking these short-range aircraft for the Eastern Shuttle (aircraft N291/2EA), where they got used on the LGA-BOS run. Note this was at the time that Amtrak's train service on this route, one of the few worthwhile frequent inter-city passenger train services left in the USA, was not performing well, and traffic was continuing to transfer to the airlines.

Iran Air got their finances sorted out and took delivery of a fresh fleet of A300s from 1980 onwards, some of which are still in service. 32 years on. It was one of these that was shot down over the Persian Gulf in 1988.

Ah, I was not aware of that and thought that Oxnard still had scheduled pax service flown by SkyWest as UA Express to LAX with EMB-120 "Brasilia" turboprops....

Another city bites the dust!

BTW, at one point SkyWest flew UAEx service OXR-SFO with the Embraer "Brasilia". And before the Air West service, OXR was served by Pacific Air Lines. I think the aircraft used was the Martin 4-0-4 followed by the Fairchild F-27. Pacific, of course, became part of Air West along with Bonanza and West Coast....

I believe the Shah also ordered the Concorde as well.....

However, the political turmoil you spoke of in Teheran and elsewhere in the country at that time did not bode well for possible future SST operations to be conducted by Iran Air.....

Yes indeed, and they had a model made of it which has spent the last 30+ years in the front window of the Iran Air ticket office in Piccadilly, Central London. Over time I've had several longing glances through the glass at it! Here it is.

http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2009...nian-concorde/

I used to fly into Oxnard from LAX aboard Golden West Twin Otters in the early 1970s. I specifically checked OXR out for this question by checking both Travelocity and the Oxnard Airport site with regard to current scheduled flights. None came up on Travelocity, but as you can see MVP Airways claims to operate as a charter even though a check of their reservations tab indicates that they operate flights three times a week to Las Vegas on set days and set times. So technically they don't have any "scheduled" flights but the reality for now is three "scheduled" charters per week.

Very interesting to note that according to the article you were kind enough to provide, Iran Air chartered the Concorde for occasional flights between Teheran and Paris!

I'm wondering if these flights were billed as actual Iran Air flights and also if they were actually operated by Air France aircraft and flight crews.....

11. You want to fly nonstop from La Paz, Mexico to Los Angeles. What airline would you call?

Well, I'm a bit unsure of the time line here, Seat 2A!

Nevertheless, I'll guess it was Aeromexico. I do know that back in February of 1976, AM was operating nonstop and onestop service between LAP and LAX including these flights:

AM 144: Depart LAP 9:30am, Arrive LAX 10:35am NONSTOP Equip: DC-9-30 Operated on Fridays only

AM 144: Depart LAP 10:25am, Arrive LAX 11:30am NONSTOP Equip: DC-9-30 Operated on Saturdays and Sundays only

AM 148: Depart LAP 10:30am, Arrive LAX 11:30am NONSTOP Equip: DC-8 Operated daily except Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays

Also note the service was one class only ("S") on both the DC8 and D9S......

We're all having a Christmas break, I see ….. :)

New Year’s Eve, another year on from the old times we write about here. I’ve been up in the attic (US - Loft ? Roofspace ?) sorting things out, and up there are some classic old timetables, among them a good set from summer 1939, the final pre-war year for Europe. At this time many services were very different between summer (lots) and winter (not a lot), so having the right season’s schedules is significant. Lets go back 73 years and have some questions from another era. I’ll try and dig across continents to give everyone a chance.

1) By summer 1939 there are at least four separate timetable guides for air services across the whole of Europe, each supposedly showing all air services (it is therefore interesting to identify all the differences/omissions between them !). Three of these were published in the UK, and a fourth in Germany, which had an extraordinary style of representation. I have them all. Can you name them ? What was so strange about the German timetable ?

2) There was a scheduled service BETWEEN two London airports ! Which airports, airline, aircraft ? How did the service get its name, one which was very familiar to Londoners ?

3) There is a once-daily service between London and Aberdeen. Which is the airline ?

4) There are three separate air services between Europe and Bangkok (which during 1939 changed its country’s name from Siam to Thailand). This was a huge run for 1939. Can we name the three carriers and their aircraft types ?

5) In summer 1939 there are three TWA flights a day between New York and Los Angeles. Aircraft in use are known as the Skyclub and the Skysleeper. Which actual aircraft types are these ?

6) Staying with TWA’s transcontinental flights, the fastest westbound flight stopped at three places along the way. What were these points ?

7) Meanwhile, there are two competitors on this route as well. Who are the three airlines ? Their fastest flights of the day leave at 5.10, 5.30 and 5.45 pm, and all get to LA at breakfast time. Who was the fastest ? And these were the days of giving names to individual flights. What were the names of the three flights ?

8) Specially for our Alaska agent, who was operating from Juneau to Fairbanks, and then branching on from there, one route to Nome and the other to Bethel ?

9) South African Airways was operating from Johannesburg to Durban and Cape Town; what aircraft type was their principal one in 1939 ?

10) Here’s a real challenge. In the seas approaching south-west England is Lundy Island, about 3 miles long and about 10miles offshore, home then to just a couple of farmers and summer day trippers. But there was a twice-daily air service from the mainland town of Barnstaple’s airfield (nowadays an RAF SAR helicopter base), landing on a bit of grass there. Can you identify the 1939 airline, and (ultimate trivia) its two aircraft ?