As part of a marketing push for its upgraded first-class cabin (full beds, 17-inch personal video and in-seat massage system), Qantas has been running advertisements, both in print and on television, trumpeting itself as the world's oldest carrier. "What else would you expect from an airline," it asks, "that's been flying longer, continuously, than any other?" Not so fast. It seems the Aussies are discounting KLM, presumably on account of that carrier's quasi-merger with Air France. But KLM and Air France continue to operate separately, and KLM's founding date of October 1919 beats that of Qantas by more than a year. You can also make an argument that Avianca, the flag carrier of Colombia, is older as well, though it was born from the merger of two previously established airlines and did not take the Avianca name for several years.
Here are the five oldest airlines still flying under their original monikers:
KLM (1919)
Qantas (1920)
Mexicana (1921)
Aeroflot (1923)
CSA Czech Airlines (1923)
A more enduring myth is the one claiming that Qantas is the only major airline to have never had a crash. I too bought into that one before doing my proper homework (see Chapter 6 of my book). Let the record show that Qantas has recorded at least seven fatal incidents -- though, to be fair, each of these occurred during the airline's early-decades operations, prior to the introduction of jets. (Qantas' safety streak was covered in greater detail in this 2006 column.)
Speaking of crashes. Back in May, in a column about the crash of a DC-9 in Congo, I included a list of more than a dozen airlines, each from countries in the developing world that have remained fatality-free for at least the past 25 years. Air Jamaica, Air Tanzania, Air Niugini and Air Zimbabwe were on that list. As was TACA, one of Latin America's largest and most highly respected carriers. Scratch one. On May 30, 2008, one of TACA's Airbus A320s skidded off a runway at Tegucigalpa, Honduras, killing five people.
TACA was founded in 1931 in Honduras. Today it flies on behalf of five Central American nations: El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Honduras. The deadly accident was its first since 1959.
News coverage of the TACA crash ran the typical gamut, from respectable to baffling to completely incoherent. My hometown paper, the Boston Globe, featured a large, above-the-fold photograph of the shattered A320, which the caption referred to in a sort of semicorrect shorthand as an "Airbus 320." Among the fatalities, it went on, were four passengers and "the pilot." This again. I take it for granted that the average newspaper reporter knows that commercial airliners are operated by a minimum of two pilots -- a captain and a first officer. Why, then, "the pilot"? Do you mean the captain? We've been through this before, I know, but it's one of the media's more irritating tics when it comes to aviation coverage. Presumably the error comes from the old "pilot" and "copilot" labels, which are mostly colloquial. "Captain" and "first officer" are the more appropriate terms. Both crew members are fully qualified to operate the aircraft in all regimes of flight, and will typically take turns at the controls. On a two-leg day, for instance, the captain will fly the first leg, and the first officer will take the second. Either way both pilots are plenty busy, but only one is physically at the controls. The captain always has command authority -- and a somewhat bigger paycheck. Moving from first officer to captain is strictly a function of seniority.
If there is any single issue that confirms my support for Barack Obama, it's his stated opposition to that most curious and stupid artifact of American foreign policy: the embargo against Cuba. The only country in the world Americans are prohibited from traveling to by their own government: Cuba. And why, because the island is run by a repressive regime? Spare me. The world is bursting with regimes that make Fidel Castro's little island look like Denmark. No, a 50-year-old grudge remains a fixture of national policy all because a small group of politically influential Floridians demand so. But eventually the embargo will go away. And the important question: Who will be the first U.S. airline into Havana! The smart money says American, what with its heavy presence throughout Latin America and its huge Miami hub. There would likely be a New York flight (or two) as well. Delta? Continental?
Speaking of Delta, in a cost-cutting measure, the airline has decided to cease issuing ticket jackets -- those paper wallets used to hold your boarding pass and tickets. Once upon a time airline tickets were issued by hand, and were often several pages thick, while boarding passes came in the form of card-stock keepsakes. The jacket was a helpful way of organizing it all. Today, electronically issued tickets can be folded into a pocket, and the boarding pass has become a flimsy paper receipt, rendering the jackets all but obsolete. I'm not sure how much money this saves, since they couldn't cost more than a fraction of a penny to manufacture, and were usually emblazoned with advertisements, but if nothing else they're saving a few trees.
When I was a kid in the late 1970s I had a substantial collection of ticket jackets from airlines around the globe.
I had a pretty big timetable collection too. Three or four times a year, airlines would publish thick booklets containing their entire network schedule -- arrival times, departure times, aircraft types, etc. -- plus a wealth of other information. There were seating diagrams, addresses and contact info -- and, my favorite, the foldout route map. The booklets were convenient for frequent fliers on the go, or airline crew members commuting to work. They also made neat collectibles.
For the most part, timetables have been relegated to virtual status on airline Web sites. Curiously, looking at the various carriers' current online versions is something of a sentimental journey, as the basic format has hardly changed. An American Airlines online timetable, for example, is laid out exactly like the printed version many years ago, including the identical typefaces.
Hard-copy versions haven't totally disappeared, but you need to look overseas to find them. Emirates is among those that, for now, still print high-quality timetables.
Do you have questions for Salon's aviation expert? Contact Patrick Smith through his Web site and look for answers in a future column.
About the writer
Patrick Smith is an airline pilot. His column is archived here.
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