Travel in the good old days - Airliners-India

ABN397 · Member

Travel in the good old days

the_380 · Member

Wow thanx for the report really informative

rgds

the_380

HAWK21M · Member

Very Intersting Note.Thanks for Sharing.

regds

MEL

vivekman · Member

In those days, international travel really felt as if you were traversing the seven seas. In today's age of non-stop long haul flights, you hardly feel the distance!!

HAWK21M · Member

Very True.How times have changed.

There was a time when people refused to travel in a Steam Engine.

regds

MEL

the_380 · Member

Believe me when at malaysia we took a cab to the base of Genting Highlands from where we were to take a cable car to the top (they claim its the longest and fastest in Asia). While on the way our driver told us that he wud take us through a shortcut through a village. The roads there were not as good as their highway but still excellent for an Indian and there were so many people starting at our cab as we passed by the village.

There was nothing so special abt our car just a regular old model of proton saga. i still feel that the poverty is still kept away many people from so called common things like a car

HAWK21M · Member

Was there something Written on the Outside of the Car

Seriously Speaking....Its true how vast is the Divide between the Have & Have nots.

regds

MEL

FromMadras · Recruit

I recall flying Air India in the early sixties when the legacy of the Tatas was still somewhat alive. Air India could never compete with Pan Am, TWA, or BOAC on a technical level -- but their service was extraordinary.

Once my family was bumped off at Geneva on London Bombay flight because some Indian govt officials needed our seats. AI put us up at a fantastic hotel, provided us with a limousine to tour the city and got us to Frankfurt the next day where we caught a TWA flight to Bombay.

Another time our luggage was lost in Paris on an AI flight from India. AI not only delivered the bags to our hotel, but had room service deliver soft drinks and desserts.

If you missed the IC connection in Bombay because AI was late, AI would accomodate passengers at the Taj. They had an air conditioned bus (a novelty in India circa 1962) to take passengers from Santa Cruz to the Taj.

Alas, by 1964 such service was just a memory.

the_380 · Member

Wish i was born earlier

himmat01 · Member

It's always good to hear about the old days of air travel.

FromMadras · Recruit

one of the worst experiences in the 1960s and 1970s for air travellers from abroad was connecting with IC. IC was so bad in those days that I once heard that the Japanese and Irananians would travel on IA and observe to see what not to do in running a state owned airline.

A major problem was getting a confirmed reservation on an IC flight. Despite having a reservation, you weren't guaranteed of getting a seat on an IC flight. The traveller had to physcially present the ticket to an IA staffer who would 'enodorse' it. Without this endorsement, there was no seat guarantee.

Getting that endorsement often meat standing in line for an hour or two. If you had arrived in India vai AI, PanAm or BOAC or were statying at the TAJ, there were staff at those places who could get the endorsement. Woe be to the poor soul who arrived in BOM via Sabena and expected to get on the next flight to Madras because he had reservation.

-- Edited by FromMadras at 20:15, 2006-07-19

vivekman · Member

IC has improved a great deal since those days although sometimes the Govt. department mentality comes through.

ABN397 · Member

A trip to Germany in 1982

Not very long ago, but long enough to be considerably different to today's flights.

In early 1982, my company decided to send some of us to our collaborator's works in East Berlin. Their travel agent figured out that the best way was to travel by Air France to West Berlin via Paris. Nice of them, as the alternative would probably have been by Aeroflot to East Berlin via Moscow.

So we were booked on an Air France 747 from Delhi to Paris (CDG). The flight seemed to originate from somewhere in SE Asia. There was a stop at Karachi, where some cleaning of the cabin was done.

To get a maximum discount, our excursion tickets were booked from Delhi to Paris, then to Brussels and back, and then to West Berlin. However the Brussels leg was skipped and we spent a day in Paris instead. (I think this won't work nowadays as if you skip some segment your onward booking gets cancelled).

The next morning we boarded an Air France 727 to West Berlin (Tegel) with a stop at Dusseldorf. Incidentally, in those days West Berlin was not legally part of West Germany and Lufthansa was not permitted to fly there. Only BA, AF and Pan Am were permitted to fly there. Now East Berlin's airport (Schonefeld) happened to lie outside the city limits so there was no restriction on flights there (although only the East European airlines found it worthwhile to fly there).

The 727 stopped for refuelling at Dusseldorf and all passengers had to alight. At that time the duty free shops were having some special promotion for American cigarettes and a nice young German lady (speaking perfect English) was trying to sell these to the transit passengers.

Finally we landed at Tegel. While coming in we saw a very tall tower-which was actulally the TV tower in East Berlin, which may have been the tallest structure in Europe in those days. We had another day to kill before crossing into East Berlin at the famous Checkpoint Charlie the next morning.
(To be continued)

the_380 · Member

When is the next part gonna be released?

ABN397 · Member

Trip to Germany in 1982 (continued)

Berlin (and Germany) in 1982 were quite different from what they are today. To begin with, there was the Wall (and I don't mean Rahul Dravid). It was still virually impossible for East Germans to legally leave their country, although by then West Germans were allowed to visit.

After moving in to our accomodation in East Berlin, there was a lot of time to kill after our factory training got over. In those days, East Berlin had little of tourist interest (there were a few good museums, but that was about it). I got a multi-entry visa and used it to travel to West Berlin on the weekends. One could go to a railway station, go through immigration and then board a local train to West Berlin (or even to West Germany of one wished).

For those from India interested in urban transport, it was a paradise (as even the Calcutta Metro had not started yet). There were interesting things like West Berlin underground trains running through East Berlin without stopping at the ghostly unlit stations where only a solitary guard could be seen.

I once took a whole day exploring the West Berlin underground system. One of the places I looked at was the Olympia Stadium (which was apparently renovated for the 2006 World Cup), and another was "Platz der Luftbrucke" which was a memorial to those who died while keeping the Berlin Airlift running in 1948. A good account of this appears in the novel "Armageddon" by Leon Uris. Incidentally the main airport was Tempelhof in the Nazi days, but by then Tegel had become the civilian airport while Tempelhof became an US base. This may have changed now.

Anyway, our return journey was by Air France via Paris. As before there was a 727 with a stop at Dusseldorf. The meals on this "local" flight included a bottle of red wine which I have not seen in any economy class flight anywhere else. There was also a little card saying "Air France certifies that this meal does not contain pork" which was a little unusual to find on a flight from Berlin to Paris. I suppose Air France has to deal with a lot of Arab and Jewish passengers.

Again we had to spend a night in Paris before boarding the flight to Delhi. This time we spent the night at CDG airport. I wonder if this would be allowed today. The 747 had a rather unusual routing: Paris-Dhahran-Delhi-Manila-Ho Chi Minh City. Not so strange was the terminus, as Vietnam was once a French colony. I suppose the 747s of those days (before the 747SP came in) did not have that much range-although they might have refuelled at Delhi.

We got a brief view of the Alps. While coming in to Dhahran we saw some oil rigs. This is close to Kuwait and Iraq, and there was some fighting there in the 1990 war. The cleaning staff were Indians with an Arab supervisor.

After a while the pilot announced that we were flying over Dubai and Sharjah, whose lights could be seen very clearly. We reached Delhi on time, having pity for our fellow passengers who had another long trip ahead to Vietnam.

himmat01 · Member

I always wondered how it was to fly out of DEL and BOM airports in the 1970s. Both DEL and BOM had a common terminal for international and domestic flights. I would be highly obliged if the the senior members could share their experiences of Indian airports during those days.

Thanks,

Himmat

FromMadras · Recruit

I lived near Santa Cruz in the early 1960s and have flown out of there quite a few times.

A trip to the airport in those days highlighted the difference between the 'haves' and 'have nots' to a much greater extent than today Back then you still had Maharajahs who came to the airport in their Rolls and Bentleys. Yet , there were huts literally on the runways. You could see the poor people in those huts from the airplane window. I still have a clear image of families coming out of their huts, covering their ears, to see a B707 taxi down a runway. The sight of such poverty was quite a shock to first time visitiors to India.

Travelling abroad was a big deal back then. People going abroad would take out small ads in newspapers giving their itenerary. Extended families would show up to both send off and receive relatives. Everyone would wear their best outfits. Garlanded passengers was quite a common site.

The airport wasn't airconditioned (or the a/c wasn't working on those numerous occaisions that I visited). There were huge ceiling fans. But the fans did little to keep the flies at bay.

I remember there were green, circular leather covered benches for passengers to await boarding. There were no arrival/departure monitors. Just a difficult to hear PA system (Later on, for some bizzare reason they had a closed circuit TV where they showed the person making the announcements).

There was an outdoor observation area which provided a fantastic view of deaprtues and arrivals. In addition to B707s, there were DC3s and a cargo plane that looked like a P38. There were big signs warning against any kind of photography from this deck. In fact, there were announcements on landing warning passengers against an photograply of the airport.

Most international flights landed at night. To guide planes to an arrival gate, there was a flatbed truck. A man on the truck, wearing some kind of suit that had multi-colored lights, would use hand signals to guide the planes.

There were no luggage carousels. Tractors would bring the luggage from the aircraft and porters would pile the bags onto the airport floor.

I could go on and on --

-- Edited by FromMadras at 10:10, 2006-07-22

himmat01 · Member

The first flight I remember having taken was from Jodhpur to Delhi back in 1977. Jodhpur Air force Base did not have a civil terminal. The IC Avros used the IAF tarmac for parking. The IAF had handed over one room to IC for checking in the passengers. After the security check,we entered the security hold which was nothing more than a tent. From there I could see 3 IAF Dakotas and 1 Avro.

My dad had planned our return to coincide with his IAF flight from JDH to DEL. Few minutes later an IC Avro landed and parked amidst the IAF a/c. The passengers disembarked and soon we boarded. My dad switched on the engines of his a/c and proceeded towards the rwy. Our a/c followed his. The taxiway has trees on both the sides. It seems more like a country road than a taxiway. Finally on reaching the rwy, both the Avros had to hold to let 2 HF24(Marut) land. My dad's a/c took off, followed by ours. We followed him all the way to Jaipur where we had to land. His a/c went straight to DEL.

After a halt of around 45 minutes, we took off for DEL. My dad was at the airport to pick us up.

Those days were great. My brother and I would go down to his office and see the a/c landing on rwy 27. There were the usual IC 737s, Caravelles and A300s. The international a/c were BA 747s, PA 707s/747s, TG DC8s, Iran Air(not able to recall what a/c) Ariana B727s. The IAF Avros, AN12s, Otters, Packets. If were lucky an AI B747.

ABN397 · Member

FromMadras wrote:

I l In addition to B707s, there were DC3s and a cargo plane that looked like a P38.

-- Edited by FromMadras at 10:10, 2006-07-22

This would be the Fairchild Packet (also called C-119) which was then used by the IAF

tayara mechanici · Member

There are 2 things i remember of my first flight, this was in 1970 to BOM-NGP on IAC, i guess it was a AVRO. I was given loads of toffees (fistful) by the purser and the the flight was very bumpy. I was the envy of my older brothers and cousins for having travelled by air, i had accompanied my mom to see her dad in NGP while he was batting in the final overs........, returned by train after the ceremonies.

Like sri of From Madras, i grew up close to santacruz. Having born at Vakola i've some fond memories of Santacruz airport, my family had moved out of vakola in 1970 itself but i would regularly visit my cousins living there during school holidays. We would stroll down towards Airworks near the army cantonment, family members working at Airworks let us play on 3 scrapped DC-3s parked there. For some reason i loved the Aerodrome/Terminal at Santacruz, as a kid this same uncle working at Airworks would drive us to the Terminal for a cream cone and tea at the cafeteria to the extreme right of the Terminal. I had never dreamt i would land up a job at Santacruz airport. I re-visited Airworks soon after joining AI in '87, alas the DC-3s were cleared only to replaced with a Caravelle, apparently impounded, it belonged to a Mr Rao who was caught smuggling diamonds on it from Sharjah.

The Old Terminal bldg at Santacruz had a lot of character, i liked that place with its old english charm. Everytime i pass the old airport at Croydon in london it reminds me of Santacruz aerodrome. I used the Santacruz Terminal in Oct'06, though the glass extension at front and the interior changes have helped ease the pax flow i hope at a later date they restore the Old airport back. Probably once the New mumbai airport is fully up and running. Have a look at this croydon airport snaps, feeling of dejavu.................

http://www.imperial-airways.com/Croydon_airport_today_page_1.html