Airline History Blog - YESTERDAY'S AIRLINES

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Compass Ten: Australia's Only A310

8/11/2023

Compass Airlines was the first attempt to compete against the duopoly of Ansett and Australian Airlines when market deregulation finally came about in November 1990. It was doomed to fail, but did become the only airline operator of VH registered A300-600s - and oddly a single Airbus A310 too.

HiFlying in Palau: Pacific Flier

18/7/2023

Airline's come and go with some frequency, but some are more interesting than others and few short-lived attempts get a release in 400 scale. Some do though, usually via that haven of diversity Aeroclassics. I do love an obscure airline from an obscure nation and Pacific Flier is both. Small Pacific island nations have often attempted to create their own connectivity but it has not always been easy for them and Palau's attempt in 2009 did not last long.

Birth of a Titan: Emirates' Early Years

24/10/2018

When I first saw Emirates at London Gatwick in 1987 I would never have guessed that they would change the face of air travel and grow into a global megacarrier. Yet even in their early years they showed the spark with which they would shakeup the conservative Middle Eastern national carriers and disrupt the networks of long haul carriers like Qantas and British Airways.

Vienna Long Haul: Austrian A310s

28/7/2018

Austrian Airlines was for many years purely a regional European national airline and although it had dabbled in long haul flights briefly during the 70s it wasn't until the mid-1980s that it finally gained aircraft with the capability to operate long haul routes effectively. These were operated by Airbuses stubby A310, which successfully enabled growth and the acquisition of higher capacity stablemates.

Future Echoes: Lufthansa Express

20/6/2017

It's not just since the 2000s that the big European carriers have been taking a hard look at how to make money on short haul routes. As far back as the early 1990s Lufthansa was struggling and it was one of the first airline's to attempt the now largely discredited airline within an airline operation, which in the US alone has seen the likes of Delta Express, Song, Metrojet and TED appear and vanish. Lufthansa didn't go the whole hog but did create its Lufthansa Express concept as a first step.

KLM 3TENS: Intra-european Widebodies

16/5/2017

The Dutch national airline, KLM, made an order for A310s in April 1979 but, unlike most of the type's European operators, the 3 tens did not see extended service and were sold after just over a decade. Their short KLM careers are however less a sign of problems with the type and more to do with changes at KLM itself.

GUEST REVIEW: Royal Canadian Air Force Airbus CC-150 Polaris (A310-304) VIP

28/11/2016

Today Yesterday's Airlines brings you a special guest review by Dan R (ACPIlot from DAC and 400ScaleHangar) of a great new release that he had personal involvement in getting realised in 1/400 scale on Aeroclassics' excellent new A310 mould. It doesn't fit my collection criteria however its a wonderful piece and I want to thank Dan for letting me republish his great review.

So over to Dan it is:

Pan Am Goes Airbus Pt2: Globes to Widgets

27/10/2015

By January 1991 Pan Am was in dire straits and desperately searching around for assets to sell and potential buyers to come forward. A deal with United for it to buy the airline's London Heathrow operations for $400 million was mired in political trouble. Even with the money Pan Am had proven capable of burning through huge amounts of cash. Finally the end was in sight.

Pan Am Goes Airbus Pt1: Shrink to Fit

24/10/2015

Pan Am had had a resurgence towards the end of the 1970s however the purchase of National Airlines and the effects of deregulation sent the airline into a nosedive it was never able to recover from. Still amongst the gloom some positive changes were made and one of them was an attempt to re-equip the fleet with more suitable products in the form of Airbuses. The airline planned to standardise its fleet around 747s, A310s and A320s however the latter would never get to wear the famous globe on its tail.

Wardair Goes For Broke: First A310s in North America

25/9/2015

Deregulation of the Canadian market gave Max Ward the chance he had been waiting for since the 1960s - to finally get out there and compete against the big boys of Air Canada and CP Air. Sadly Wardair bit off more than it could chew with some stonking great orders, which included quite a lot of Airbus A310s. I remember getting to see them at Gatwick as a boy in the late 80s.

Aeroflot Goes West Pt1: Double-Eagle A310s

19/9/2015

Glasnost and Perestroika signalled seismic changes in super power relations but also in the market conditions that faced Eastern-bloc airlines. Soviet types were rugged and effective but had not been designed in an atmosphere where cost effectiveness was a primary concern, whilst Soviet engineering was decades behind the West. In terms of operating costs no Russian type, until perhaps the Superjet, has been able to rival those of comparable Western jets. The sudden need for profitability led even Aeroflot itself towards Western equipment choices despite pressures to buy homegrown.

Martinair Combi: 'Prins Maurits' the Sole A310-203C

13/12/2014

Martins Air Charter was formed in May 1958 by Martin Schröder. Eight years later it became Martinair Holland and in 1967 began transatlantic charters using DC-7s and DC-8s. By 1971 the entire fleet was jet powered and two years later widebody DC-10s joined. Martinair often operated combi variants of aircraft that could be switched from all-cargo to passenger configuration including all four of the DC-10s.