Originally Posted by
Goldencane
The 707/VC10 swap for cabin crew in Syd was late sixties, early seventies. I did this RTW twice as pax.
The division of BOAC routes between 707 and VC10 did change almost yearly as the fleet was updated. The basic 707 fleet, the ones with Conway engines, were all delivered before the first VC10 arrived. There were a handful of later 707s with P&W engines, but these were either freighters or assigned to specific routes. After the first Standard VC10s replaced the Comets, the Super VC10s progressively spread across the system and the arrangements were varied. The last Super VC10 was only delivered a year before the first 747, and of course changes in assignments continued after that.
QF start their PER, LHR non stop in a couple of months, how things have changed.
Qantas 8 was doing LHR-Bombay-Perth (and on to Melbourne and Sydney) on the (original) 747 by 1980, 38 years ago. Given how airport procedures have expanded in time since then, I suspect the overall time from entering to finally exiting the airports will be much the same as with one stop.