BOAC/BA Routes to Australia 1973-74
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Slight digression
'74/'74 used to commute to Singapore (& on to Balikpapan), outward choice was BA VC10 - LHR - DOH - SIN, this flight then went on to MEL and was reckoned to be the fastest to Oz!!!
Flight got us to SIN in time to check in at the Singapura Forum (top of Orchard Rd) and down to 'Bugis Street' so we could prep for an 0600 check in at Seletar for onwards to Balikpapan
One drawback the Gin could run out before Doha and BA couldn't organise a top up in Doha (on one occasion they couldn't even refill the Tonic!!!)
PZU - Out of Africa (Retired)
'74/'74 used to commute to Singapore (& on to Balikpapan), outward choice was BA VC10 - LHR - DOH - SIN, this flight then went on to MEL and was reckoned to be the fastest to Oz!!!
Flight got us to SIN in time to check in at the Singapura Forum (top of Orchard Rd) and down to 'Bugis Street' so we could prep for an 0600 check in at Seletar for onwards to Balikpapan
One drawback the Gin could run out before Doha and BA couldn't organise a top up in Doha (on one occasion they couldn't even refill the Tonic!!!)
PZU - Out of Africa (Retired)
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A bigger digression,
SQ were I think the first carrier to serve free drinks in all classes of travel. Traveling BKK - LHR in a classic 747 we were allowed off in Bahrain where the transit lounge was full of oil rig workers celebrating finding a bar after a 3 month dry. At Rome the 'plane half emptied as Aussie-Italians got off, not to be replaced as no traffic right Rome to U.K. After take-off I ask for a scotch & soda.
"No sir, very sorry bar closed. Not allowed to serve drinks on flight to London English rules". Pause "You may have gin & tonic sir".
I am puzzled but accept offer and am served. "How come I can have gin but not scotch?"
"Well sir in Rome we lock away the stock. Not allowed to serve free drinks on sectors to England. Only opened bottles not locked away. I have only 3 more measures of gin and some cognac left sir."
My G&T lasted to Heathrow, Happy Days.
SQ were I think the first carrier to serve free drinks in all classes of travel. Traveling BKK - LHR in a classic 747 we were allowed off in Bahrain where the transit lounge was full of oil rig workers celebrating finding a bar after a 3 month dry. At Rome the 'plane half emptied as Aussie-Italians got off, not to be replaced as no traffic right Rome to U.K. After take-off I ask for a scotch & soda.
"No sir, very sorry bar closed. Not allowed to serve drinks on flight to London English rules". Pause "You may have gin & tonic sir".
I am puzzled but accept offer and am served. "How come I can have gin but not scotch?"
"Well sir in Rome we lock away the stock. Not allowed to serve free drinks on sectors to England. Only opened bottles not locked away. I have only 3 more measures of gin and some cognac left sir."
My G&T lasted to Heathrow, Happy Days.
...........The 1971 India-Pakistan war fired up almost immediately, closing Indian airspace
We were told to avoid Dacca, and navigate to a point in the ocean due South of Calcutta and then establish inbound on the 180 radial of Calcutta VOR.
Out came the sextant, and having reached the required position I handed navigation decisions back to the pilots, to maintain the 180 radial as instructed. Except ....... they couldn't receive the VOR signal, so called Calcutta ATC, who said - "we have switched off all navigation aids, maintain the 180 radial of the Calcutta VOR inbound !"
We called Company in Dum Dum, and they told us that ATC had switched off the VOR and NDB, and turned off all airport lights, including the navigation identity beacon, and the runway approach lights, but when we were established on finals they would switch on the runway lights for 30 seconds to "assist" our landing. We asked the current weather - 800 ft overcast in rain, we were told. We diverted to Rangoon, and told to reverse our track and maintain the 180 radial of the VOR back to the same oceanic position,with the VOR switched off.
INS ? GPS ? don't make me laugh.
Indian airspace was indeed closed, and all aircraft were ordered to land at Calcutta or Bombay for clearance before continuing across the Country, we were bound for Calcutta so that was OK but a following KLM aircraft advised he was bound for Bombay, so would continue - we never heard from him again, tho' to be fair we didn't hear of any KLM aircraft being shot down by a musket, either.
Last edited by ExSp33db1rd; 22nd Nov 2014 at 23:10.
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I have found five entries for Brisbane flights for 73/74 in my logbook.
They are;
13th May 1973 SVC10 G-ASGO SIN 12.42 BNE 20.05 BA722
23rd March 1974 SVC10 G-ASGL KUL 13.41 DRW 18.29 BA710
23rd March 1974 SVC10 G-ASGL DRW 19.12 BNE 22.35 BA710
27th March 1974 SVC10 G-ASGL BNE 06.03 DRW 10.00 BA737
27th March 1974 SVC10 G-ASGL DRW 10.48 SIN 15.08 BA737
Hope this helps.
They are;
13th May 1973 SVC10 G-ASGO SIN 12.42 BNE 20.05 BA722
23rd March 1974 SVC10 G-ASGL KUL 13.41 DRW 18.29 BA710
23rd March 1974 SVC10 G-ASGL DRW 19.12 BNE 22.35 BA710
27th March 1974 SVC10 G-ASGL BNE 06.03 DRW 10.00 BA737
27th March 1974 SVC10 G-ASGL DRW 10.48 SIN 15.08 BA737
Hope this helps.
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Lots of comments about aircraft having to stop so often to refuel. This is not the case, there simply was not the traffic available on most of these routes to make non (or even limited) stop services viable. The many intermediate stops were for traffic purposes and BOAC/BA had fifth freedom rights on most of these sectors. In many cases this was a throwback to the days of empire, which were not so far in the past then as they are now.
Paxing All Over The World
Regarding traffic, I recall my first ever flight in December 1965 was VC-10 (not Super):
LHR - CIA - NBO - JNB
As I understand it, the machine could have done NBO without a stop? On other occasions is was EBB for the bounce.
I would agree with earlier posters that the VC10 did not go on to CPT, you had to change on to SAA at that time.
LHR - CIA - NBO - JNB
As I understand it, the machine could have done NBO without a stop? On other occasions is was EBB for the bounce.
I would agree with earlier posters that the VC10 did not go on to CPT, you had to change on to SAA at that time.
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: se england
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I used to enjoy looking at the old BOAC timetables which indeed did resemble a bus timetable . A page marked London to Hong Kong might well show different intermediate stops every day of the week and would change from year to year . If you wanted to go to say Delhi you had to look up a couple of different terminating route pages say LHR -HKG and LHR to SYD . alsoa great slew of footnotes with coding maks inserted in the timetable positions like + or * decoded lower down the apgesd as
'one hour later from mar 30 ' or not Sundays in june or operated by 707 aircraft from 25 May'
Great fun for me and mate with our fathers 10% travel rights and wonder where we can go attitude-great times. And yes the stops were to pick up and drop off pax with BOAC often being seen as much better option on all kinds of city pairs along these 'Empire Routes' than the fledging independent country flag carriers
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Location: se england
Posts: 585
I used to enjoy looking at the old BOAC timetables which indeed did resemble a bus timetable . A page marked London to Hong Kong might well show different intermediate stops every day of the week and would change from year to year . If you wanted to go to say Delhi you had to look up a couple of different terminating route pages say LHR -HKG and LHR to SYD . alsoa great slew of footnotes with coding maks inserted in the timetable positions like + or * decoded lower down the apgesd as
'one hour later from mar 30 ' or not Sundays in june or operated by 707 aircraft from 25 May'
Great fun for me and mate with our fathers 10% travel rights and wonder where we can go attitude-great times. And yes the stops were to pick up and drop off pax with BOAC often being seen as much better option on all kinds of city pairs along these 'Empire Routes' than the fledging independent country flag carriers
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And of course there was the best BOAC route flying to SYD via LAX and HNL. The 'Supers' operated that route until it closed. It's worth noting that 747 classics used to do the 'Milk Run' to SYD. I believe it used to be LHR-ZRH-THR-BOM-HKG-DRW or MNL - SYD-MEL. I couldn't even work out how long that one took as opposed to the BAH-SIN route. I remember slipping in DRW before a cyclone blew the hotel down then BOAC stopped flying there.
I have some newer ones as well but haven't gotten around to scanning them all. I will do some day!
Unfortunately the closest timetable to 1974 I count find online was April 1971, three years before you flew.
BOAC - British Overseas Airways Corporation
Index of /ttimages/ba2/ba71/
Australian flights are on pages 36 - 43.
I'd like to know if anyone can trace any others.
Its very interesting and well worth a look. A typical flight to SYD would typically have six intermediate stops. I was surprised at home many flights stopped at ZRH, FRA & FCO which, as has been said before, was doubtless a relic of empire days.
You could certainly have flown to SYD with two intermediate stops such as BAH and SIN. You could have reached Perth with one intermediate stop at somewhere such as BOM from 1963 given the range of the 707 320B/C.
BOAC - British Overseas Airways Corporation
Index of /ttimages/ba2/ba71/
Australian flights are on pages 36 - 43.
I'd like to know if anyone can trace any others.
Its very interesting and well worth a look. A typical flight to SYD would typically have six intermediate stops. I was surprised at home many flights stopped at ZRH, FRA & FCO which, as has been said before, was doubtless a relic of empire days.
You could certainly have flown to SYD with two intermediate stops such as BAH and SIN. You could have reached Perth with one intermediate stop at somewhere such as BOM from 1963 given the range of the 707 320B/C.
Does anybody have a timetable routing for London to Hong Kong by Super VC10 in 1976? I seem to remember Muscat, Bombay or Delhi then Calcutta, Rangoon as stops on the way. A worker was evacuated from Muscat due to injuries they had sustained which may explain the stop in Bombay.
I've only got a 1978-79 timetable available, but that shows:
By then most of the flights used the 747, so this may not be representative.
Full timetable available here: https://www.vc10.net/Data/Routings_timetables.html
By then most of the flights used the 747, so this may not be representative.
Full timetable available here: https://www.vc10.net/Data/Routings_timetables.html
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Can't remember Flight # but in '75 was working in Indonesia (East Kalimantan) tripping through Singapore - best outward flight was BA VC10 (Super?) LHR - DOH - SIN this flight went on to MEL and was reckoned to be Fastest to Oz; only hardship was running out of Tonic after DOH we could cope with the Gin by using DF but BA wouldn't/couldn't restock Tonic at DOH !!! Once stood (down the back) all the way from LHR - SIN apart from t/o and landing drinking G&T some 19 hrs of 'hell' !!!
PZU - Out of Africa (Retired)
PZU - Out of Africa (Retired)
Went to Hong Kong in mid '78 to meet my girlfriend who was working for SCF in Nepal at the time. Last day we went to Macau only to be sent back early as a Typhoon was approaching (the Boeing Jetfoil was pretty stable). By the time we got to Kai Tak the flight was cancelled and we were put in an hotel on the island. After a wild (weather) couple of nights we were bused back to Kai Tak where the departures board showed 4 BA flights. 1 cancelled (sent back London from somewhere else in the east). 2nd was a VC10 operating Tokyo to Johannesburg (I seem to remember that stopped in Colombo) and the rest of us were on the remaining two flights. Happily one was going via Bangkok where girlfriend needed to change to the RNAC flight to Kathmandu.
My other memory of the far east wasn't BA. I went London/Amsterdam on KLM then Amsterdam/Frankfurt/Rome/somewhere in the Gulf/ Bombay/Bangkok/Jakarta on a DC10 with KLM titles one side and Garuda the other side then a Garuda DC8 to Denpasar.Came home from Singapore on a Garuda DC8. to Amsterdam. One stop was Colombo where I watched a family who I suspect were staff offloaded and helped to get their bags from the hold.
My other memory of the far east wasn't BA. I went London/Amsterdam on KLM then Amsterdam/Frankfurt/Rome/somewhere in the Gulf/ Bombay/Bangkok/Jakarta on a DC10 with KLM titles one side and Garuda the other side then a Garuda DC8 to Denpasar.Came home from Singapore on a Garuda DC8. to Amsterdam. One stop was Colombo where I watched a family who I suspect were staff offloaded and helped to get their bags from the hold.
