UTOPIA AIRPORT: CAAC TIMETABLE DATED APRIL 1, 1980

CAAC TIMETABLE DATED APRIL 1, 1980

40 years ago, CAAC published this timetable.

From the collection of Bjorn Larsson @ www.timetableimages.com

A few word about CAAC

CAAC was formed on November 2, 1949, shortly after the founding of the People's Republic of China, to manage all non-military aviation in the country, as well as provide general and commercial flight service (similar to Aeroflot in the Soviet Union). It was initially managed by the People's Liberation Army Air Force.
In 1980 the airline was transferred to the direct control of the State Council

Domestic destinations

CAAC operated a dense domestic network amounting to 110,000 km of unduplicated routes as we can see from the map below.
Analyzing the map. we can distincly notice some mini hubs : such as Wuhan, Guangzhou,Urumqi, Kumming and Shanghai and of course Peking. and when in 1988 , CAAC Airlines split into six separate airlines, each named after the geographic region of their main operating areas, it followed roughly the existence of the mini hubs.

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International destinations

Network length 62267 km

With only 15 foreign destinationas, CAAC operated an extremely limited international network compared to the size and political clout of the company.

Most flights were operated on a weekly basis except flights to Tokyo operated 7 times per week: 4 non- stop flights from Peking , 2 via Shanghai and 1 via Shanghai and Osaka.

Fleet

CAAC operated a heterogeneous fleet consisting of Russian, Chinese, English and American built aircraft

B747

The airlines operated the B747 mainly on its international routes to Tokyo once a week and on Peking-Teheran-Paris-Peking once a week also. The B747 operated also on PEK-CAN

By Rolf Wallner - http://www.airliners.net/photo/CAAC/Boeing-747-2J6BM/0300678/L/, GFDL 1.2, Link

ILLYUSHIN 62
The IL62 was deployed on toutes to Moscow (2x week) , Peking-Karachi-Bucharest (1xweek), Peking-Frankfurt (1xweek , via THR and BUH). PEK-URC saw a weekly fliight operated by the IL62

By Lars Söderström - http://www.airliners.net/photo/CAAC/Ilyushin-Il-62/0202519/L/, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

B707

The 707 was used on all its remaining international except for flights to Rangoon and to Nagasaki operated with Tridents 2E/3 and to Pyongyang operated by the AN24
On the domestic front the B707 was used on PEK-CAN,PEK-SHA routes

By https://www.flickr.com/photos/boeingdreamscape/ - https://www.flickr.com/photos/boeingdreamscape/4584787741/in/photostream, CC BY 2.0, Link

HS121 Trident 2E /3B

By Lars Söderström - http://www.airliners.net/photo/CAAC/Hawker-Siddeley-HS-121/0202518/L/, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

The trident was mainly used on the company's trunk routes such as
Peking-Shenyang, Peking-Xian, Peking-Chengdu,Peking-Kumming, Peking-Harbin,Guangzhou-Chengdu,Shanghai-Chengdu, Shanghai-Harbin

PROP PLANES

ILLYUSHIN18

CAAC Ilyushin Il-18 Guilin Airport 1984 King.jpg

By Steve King - http://www.airliners.net/photo/CAAC/Ilyushin-Il-18/1614762/L/, GFDL 1.2, Link

VICKERS VISCOUNT 843

Routes operated by the vickers viscount are illustrated in the map below:

ANTONOV 24

By Felix Goetting - Gallery page http://www.airliners.net/photo/CAAC/Antonov-An-24B/1018220/L Photo http://cdn-www.airliners.net/aviation-photos/photos/0/2/2/1018220.jpg, GFDL 1.2, Link

ILLYUSHIN 14