The coolest Airline

[uk 75]

I love airliners in model form but loathe flying as a form of travel in real life. But I have been thinking in these Covid days which is the airline which sums up the coolness of the idea of airline travel.
As a Brit Imperial Airways with its silver biplanes at Croydon airport or flying boats on the Nile evoke the world of elegance. Its successor BOAC had some beautiful colour schemes on aircraft like the Comet and VC10.
But cool for me means Pan American. Its round the world 707 flight. The iconic Pan Am clipper in 2001 a Space Odyssey. The first 747 jumbo into Heathrow.
It is no accident that by the 80s Pan Am was on its way out. Flying was ordinary, commonplace. But for a long time Pan Am was the coolest airline.

 

[Boombabb2]

I agree, personally I love flying boats, so I think that´s the coolest airline. However something is to be said for Pan Am and the golden age of flying. Truly long gone days.

 

[martinbayer]

I agree, personally I love flying boats, so I think that´s the coolest airline. However something is to be said for Pan Am and the golden age of flying. Truly long gone days.

Pan Am operated flying boats as well, see https://www.clipperflyingboats.com/...

 

[zen]

Ahhh but Aeroflot.....where the plastic meal trays have on examination .....teeth marks.
Presumably the passengers bit down on the plastic in terror during flight

 

[uk 75]

I have flown both Interflug (Tu 134 and Ilyushin Il18) and Lufthansa (737 and Airbus). Guess which cabin crew were nicer in every way Genossin.

 

[Arjen]

I am genuinely interested. Do tell!

 

[uk 75]

I flew Interflug twice in 1989 and the young cabin crew were delightful and on the Il18 even gave out barley sugar sweets to suck (cabin pressure on take off).

 

[Orionblamblam]

KLM, hands down. They equipped their stewardesses with AR-10's.

How successful was this? So long as KLM DC-7s and DC-8's had AR-10s, none of their planes were ever hijacked by polar bears.

 

[uk 75]

Of course not, Polar Bears only fly Aeroflot, Air Canada or SAS

 

[dwkr01]

Of course not, Polar Bears only fly Aeroflot, Air Canada or SAS

Well, I hope he is my seat-mate on my next flight SFO-CPH!

My experiences with SAS have been quite positive - pretty comfortable aircraft (even the now-old and going A340s) and very competent staff. Even the food was ok (going from a few years back), my wife loved everything but I was maybe less enthusiastic about the bread.....

Oh, and the passengers. Once flying CPH-SFO we landed at SFO and the flight crew got on the speaker and said we were stuck in traffic and would have to wait for a gate, and 'please remain seated'. Everyone remained seated! That was truly unusual.

Dan

 

[Orionblamblam]

Of course not, Polar Bears only fly Aeroflot, Air Canada or SAS

SAS is prepared for bears.

 

[Anderman]

Of course not, Polar Bears only fly Aeroflot, Air Canada or SAS

SAS is prepared for bears.

Looks live SAS is made up by bears

 

[uk 75]

Not sure I would tell those chaps that to their faces unless you can run as fast as a Polar Bear!

 

[zen]

Of course not, Polar Bears only fly Aeroflot, Air Canada or SAS

SAS is prepared for bears.

Desert bears obviously

 

[riggerrob]

Ahhh but Aeroflot.....where the plastic meal trays have on examination .....teeth marks.
Presumably the passengers bit down on the plastic in terror during flight

Confused passengers struggled to distinguish between collective-farm grown food and the plastic tray that it arrived on!
Hah!
Hah!

 

[EthelredTheUnsteady]

Seriously, New Zealand National Airways Corporation on a Fokker Friendship in 1970 BHE-WLG. A 17 minute flight. The cabin crew were genuinely friendly, relaxed and welcoming. As we boarded we were each given a warm, wet, scented towel to wipe the face and wrists, then a glass of apple and orange juice just before we taxied out. Just before take-off commenced, barley-sugar sweets given out to ease the pressure change on climb out. Five or six minutes later at cruising altitude, the glasses were collected, the day's newspaper was distributed and just before descent, more barley sugars. Then Wellington and a cheerful goodbye. No stress, as pleasant as you could hope for and far cooler in the real sense than the Pan Am flight I was on later that day AKL-PPG.

 

[NoBarrelRolls]

I really miss the days when each fly included snacks and newspapers. After flying in a couple of low-cost, I always wonder if the luggage flies more comfortably.

 

[Michel Van]

Never had chance to fly with Pan Am into orbit
or with Sabena, neither Bardaf airlines...

I had fly with cool Austria Airline NIKI several times
Working Aircraft, good pilots, friendly stewardess.
sadly they went bankrupt in 2017....

With Luftwaffe, eh i mean Lufthansa i had not so good experience...

 

[Dynoman]

I always like Chalks. It was the oldest airline in the US when it went under. I got a chance to tour Chalks facility on Watson Island in Miami back in the early 1990s with the chief pilot, whose name was Jacques IIRC. He showed a small group I was with the aircraft and the cockpit. I remember that in the center of the sparely instrumented panel was a mounted cassette tape player. I asked what it was for and he said that was the 'entertainment.' Steel drum music I imagined.