Originally Posted by
SteveHobson
Thanks WHBM.
I have a print of Timetable No.13 ( unfortunately undated but certainly 1949)
Showing the following schedule.
SOLENT FLIGHT BO 157
Airways terminal London Dep 1515 Day 2
Southampton Dep 0800 Day 3
........
Naivasha Arr 1400
Dep 1500
Dar-es Salaam Arr 1730
Yes, I've now moved on to the July 1949 timetable in my collection (sorry, no electronic copy) which shows almost this, so changed between March and July. BO 155 Departs Southampton 0830 Mon Fri Sun to "Nairobi", BO 157 departs 0730 Wed through to Dar es Salaam. These are notable flights for the flying boats because they operated right through the night without the customary hotel stops, to get from Southampton to Nairobi in 30 hours.
Also in the timetable is a decidedly more leisurely and traditional service which left Southampton at 1130 on Tue Wed Fri (thus allowing a morning train from London), nightstopping at Augusta, Luxor, Kampala and Victoria Falls, taking 5 days to Johannesburg. This was the sort of service that just became uncompetitive against South African Airways DC4s, who got to Jo'burg in 2 days and one night.
My BOAC history makes no reference to this new East African service, strangely, but little over a year later, 7 November 1950, the final BOAC flying boat ran, on the Jo'burg run. The Far East routes were given up in Autumn 1949. The Hermes took over Johannesburg via Nairobi, but 18 months later, May 1952, the Comet was introduced to Jo'burg. What a transformation in a short time.