and not having to stop at Ilha doSol (Canary Islands) SID [not to be confused with SYD!] for a tech stop was very important to them. I recall stopping at SID several times with SAA 747-100 in the middle of the night and we were not allowed off it was just fuel.
I know it was dark PAXboy, but if you stopped in SID, Ilha do S
al, you were in the Cape Verde Islands, not the Canaries...