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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0043.PDF
11 January 1957 43 Aeroflot and Minhaiduy Lifting the Curtain on Air Services in the U.S.S.R. and China By J. MUIRHEAD JOHNSTON, B.A. (Editor of "The ABC World Airways Guide") DURING the last twelve months or so information con-cerning the air services of the U.S.S.R. and the ChinesePeople's Republic has become much more up-to-dateand extensive. Moreover, the Tupolev Tu-104, which caused a stir when it first visited London last year, is currently going intoservice on certain routes. Thus it seems opportune at this time to present a brief survey of civil air transport operations in thesetwo countries. The name Aeroflot, by which the Russian national airline isknown, is an abbreviation of a title which could be translated as General Department of Civil Air Fleet at the Council of Ministersof the U.S.S.R.; such, in fact, is the description printed in the latest edition of the carrier's timetables. This organization con-trols the whole civil air fleet of the U.S.S.R. and is responsible not only for the operation of normal scheduled services but alsofor a wide variety of other duties, including crop spraying, ambu- lance services and special charters. The name Minhaiduy,abbreviation for the Civil Aviation Administration of China, is probably not as well known, for the airline was formed compara-tively recently and is at present in process of building up its route network. Another small airline in the Far East is thatoperated by the Ministry of Communications of the Korean Democratic Republic under the name Ukamps, but very littleinformation concerning its operations is currently available. Let us, then, first examine the scheduled operations of Aeroflot, whichis by far the biggest and most important of the three carriers and operates a much larger and more extensive network than theothers; indeed it must rank among the world's largest scheduled operators. Aeroflot maintains a considerable number of internationalroutes to the capital cities of countries in the so-called Com- munist bloc, although during the last year or so these routes havebeen extended to certain other countries; indeed, the service between Moscow and Helsinki in Finland has been in operationfor some eight or nine years. Of these international routes the largest group is that linking Moscow with numerous cities ofEastern Europe, and some of these are now operated jointly with the national carriers of the various states served; during the lastfew years Soviet participation in the organizations of these carriers has been progressively withdrawn. On the route Moscow-Vilno-Prague (formerly operated viaMinsk instead of Vilno) Aeroflot maintain three and CSA one daily service in each direction. Operation of one of the Aeroflotflights is now being taken over by Tu-104s, which omit the inter- mediate landing at Vilno and accomplish the journey in two-and-a-half hours, compared with slightly over seven hours by other aircraft. Tu-104s are at present operating twice weekly, but thisfrequency will be progressively increased to daily. I Between Moscow and Berlin, via Vilno, Aeroflot maintain: daily flights in each direction, with additional services calling also at Warsaw on three days of the week. Reciprocal services areflown by the East German Deutsche Lufthansa seven times weekly on the route Berlin-Warsaw-Vilno-Moscow, whilst thePolish Airline, LOT, operates four weekly flights in each direc- tion between Warsaw and Moscow, three non-stop, the fourthcalling at Vilno. After a period of suspension occasioned by the difficultiesbetween the U.S.S.R. and Yugoslavia, services to Belgrade have been re-opened, and six flights weekly in each direction are madeon the route Moscow-Kiev-Lwow (Lemberg)—Budapest- Belgrade; this line continues from Belgrade to Tirana twice aweek. Although the Yugoslav Airline, JAT, does not yet operate between Belgrade and Moscow, such a service is provided forunder the Soviet-Yugoslav air agreement. There is also a thrice-weekly service on the route Moscow-Kiev-Lwow-Budapest-Vienna; since the withdrawal of the occupation forces from Austria Aeroflot has used Schwechat Airport at Vienna, thusproviding direct links with all the other carriers serving this city. The last of this group of services is that from Moscow viaKiev-Odessa-Bucharest to Sofia, operated nine times weekly. An interesting feature of the services on most of these routes is thatsome flights in the outward direction from Moscow are restricted to mail and cargo traffic, although all inward flights also haveaccommodation for passengers. It is reported that Aeroflot will shortly extend this network by the addition of a new line,Moscow-Bucharest-Athens-Cairo. The most recent development has been the conclusion of reciprocal agreements between Aeroflot on the one hand andFinnair and S_A.S. on the other for the joint operation of services between Scandinavia and the U.S.S.R. As a result of this theHelsinki-Moscow route is now flown four times weekly by Aeroflot and twice weekly by Finnair, schedules having beenco-ordinated to provide services on six days a week at standard departure times. The agreement between Aeroflot and S.A.S.provides for four flights weekly on the route Moscow-Riga- Copenhagen and a similar number via Moscow-Riga-Stockholm,extended to Oslo once weekly by S.A.S. Operation of these flights is shared equally by the two carriers and Aeroflot provide imme-diate connections four times weekly between Riga and Leningrad. The other main group of international routes operated byAeroflot consists of services to the Far East. There are two daily flights in each direction from Moscow to Peking via Kazan,Sverdlovsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk and Ulan- Bator (Mongolia). One of these is operated throughout by Aeroflot,whilst on the second service the sector Irkutsk-Ulan-Bator-Peking is flown by the Chinese operator Minhaiduy. In the outwarddirection a night-stop is made at Irkutsk by all services, and there is an additional weekly flight each way between Moscow andUlan-Bator. Services to the North Korean capital of Pyong Yang are maintained six times weekly by the same route toIrkutsk and thence to Chita, where night stops are made in both directions; between Chita and Pyong Yang intermediate calls aremade at Hailar, Harbin and Shenyang (Mukden) in North-east China (Manchuria), and this sector is operated alternately byAeroflot and Ukamps. Another connection with China is made via Alma-Ata, whence local services are operated twice weekly toHi and Urumchi in the Eastern province of Sinkian; this route is operated jointly by Aeroflot and Minhaiduy. The remaining international route of Aeroflot consists of atwice-weekly service from Moscow via Uralsk, Aktyubinsk, Dzhusaly, Tashkent (where a night stop is made) and Termez toKabul; here connections are available with the services of Indian Airlines Corporation to Delhi and Calcutta. Domestic Network A glance at the map overleaf shows that the main concentrationof Aeroflot domestic routes lies in European Russia. In addition to the international lines serving these cities there are daily flightsfrom Moscow to Kiev and Odessa, twice daily between Moscow and Kiev, whence numerous routes fan out to the cities of South-west Russia. Traffic to the Black Sea ports and resorts is heavy; there are twice-daily flights between Moscow and Mineralnye-Vody and between Moscow and Adler (serving the resort of Sochi) and daily flights from Moscow to Tbilisi (capital ofGeorgia), Sukhumi and Simferopol. Most of these flights make intermediate calls at one or more of the important cities ofVoronezh, Kharkov, Stalino and Rostov-on-Don; but since October 15 there has been a once-weekly non-stop service onMondays by Tu-104 between Moscow and Tbilisi; this takes two- and-a-half hours instead of the usual eight. The longest domestic trunk route is that between Moscow andVladivostock, some 7,500 km (rather over 4,600 miles), which follows the Far Eastern route across Siberia to Chita, whence itcontinues via Tygda and Khabarovsk alternatively to Vladivostock or Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Recent details of the schedules for thisroute are not available, but there are certainly several daily services throughout as well as many additional flights terminating atvarious intermediate points. The most recent development on this route was the introduction on September 16 of a Tu-104,which flies three times a week in each direction between Moscow and Irkutsk with a single intermediate landing at Omsk in anoverall time of just over seven hours. At Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk branches leave the main line for Kirensk and Yakutsk in thenorth-east. In addition to the through service to Kabul there are also dailyflights between Moscow and Tashkent via Uralsk, Aktyubinsk and Dzhusaly; a regular Tu-104 service flying non-stop between thesetwo important cities in four hours has operated every Wednesday since October 17. There are also daily services between Moscowand Alma-Ata via various intermediate points and between Moscow, Stalingrad and Baku. In addition services from bothMoscow and Leningrad are operated to Archangel and Murmansk in the Far North; Leningrad is also linked directly with theBlack Sea area via Minsk and Kiev. [Cont. overleaf
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