1964 Jamaica to Paris not London?

[joekinguk]

I'm looking at historical flights from Jamaica and the USA to London, but notice that people flew to Paris first then London rather than direct.

Why would that have been?

For example, Stevie Wonder flew to the UK for the first time in 1962, but did so via Paris. It's true of other musicians too. It wasn't that they performed in Paris before coming to London.

Were direct flights to London more expensive or was Paris a hub for such flights?

Any help very much appreciated.

[chevvron]

Maybe it was because the flights were run by Air France?

[joekinguk]

Yes Air France is a possibility. Would Air France have flown direct to Jamaica or would Jamaicans have first flown to say Miami?

Today there are so many flight options, but I'm gussing back in the early 1960s air routes were far less numerous.

[kcockayne]

Trying to remember, I think it was always the case that London had more trans Atlantic routes than Paris, & more frequency, too. There may have been certain places in the USA/Caribbean area which only had services to Paris but, generally , London had the greater number of routes & frequencies in my recollection. It is interesting to note that London - SFO was only about 4 times a week in the early to middle ‘60s, LAX was once daily, MIA didn’t have a service at all until the latter part of the decade, & even JFK- London was only served about 3 times daily by BOAC (not counting US airlines here, but their services - TWA & PAA - were about as frequent & extensive as BOAC). To my recollection, there were no services - by any airline - to places such as Seattle, San Diego, Portland, Las Vegas, Denver, Dallas, Houston, Orlando, Charlotte, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Detroit etc. How times have changed !

[renfrew]

There were no direct flights from Jamaica to Paris in 1964.
Most BOAC flights were via New York.

[pax britanica]

I think you will find BOAC flew LHR to Detroit back then -car industry-. AF would have probably flown to the French Caribbean but Jamaica very unlikely. Even in Early 70s the Caribbean was a stretch for the then new 707-300s and VC10a and offloading pax or baggage due to headwinds not uncommon.

UK to Caribbean was either JFK and change to the JFK to Jamaica add on leg , not everyday or JFK to Barbados and Trinidad and Bermuda (not in the Caribbean of course ) . Some nice lay overs for the VC 10 crews who operated the trips south of JFK or who crew changed in BDA before the aircraft went further south. More relaxed way of travelling back then at least in terms of journey time .

[dixi188]

ISTR National airlines were the first to offer Heathrow to Miami using DC8s.

[treadigraph]

Did Stevie Wonder really come to London as early as 1962? He would only have been about 12. I know he was a teenage prodigy and toured the US around then with several other young acts...

[DaveReidUK]

Originally Posted by joekinguk

For example, Stevie Wonder flew to the UK for the first time in 1962, but did so via Paris. It's true of other musicians too.

He was 12 years old in 1962, so I suspect he wasn't performing.

[Sam Asama]

Stevie Wonder passed through London in December 1963, after performing a two‑week engagement at the Olympia Theatre in Paris. YES, at age 13!
(That seems the be the earliest established date that he was in the UK.)

[WHBM]

For USA East Coast and Caribbean from Paris, Air France only served Pointe-a-Pitre in the Caribbean south of Washington DC in 1964. Not even Fort-de-France yet, runway could not handle 707s.

TWA did have its European hub in Paris, but from their usual suspects of Boston/New York/Chicago. They did however also have a nonstop 707 from LAX to Paris, but not direct LAX to London, which may very well have attracted the Hollywood entertainment and media industry. TWA still had the influence of Howard Hughes' shareholding in them, and Hughes had set up direct sales teams with his contacts at the studios etc, which served 'Tee-Dub' well for much of their time, and to an extent still has carried on after American bought them out 25 years ago; the American service from New York to LAX is still regarded as the media and stars shuttle between the two centres, the commercial contacts having carried on.