Those were the days...

It's been a while (how many days exactly...?) since I last posted something about aviation. Then again, it's one of my passions and I don't carry that a i r in my nickname for nothing... so here we go, another round of videos to share some airline nostalgia with you:

The first video is from an airline that most of you probably don't know if you are not interested in airlines and stuff: Wien Air Alaska. As a kid, the name always fascinated me and I always wondered where it came from. Because you must know that "Wien" in German is the name of the capital of Austria, Vienna. So you can imagine that I was pretty confused as a child what Vienna had to do with an airline in Alaska... ;-) After all, at that time there was no internet to look up all the facts...

The next commercial is of one of the former major airlines I unfortunately never managed to fly (yeah, us airline geeks "collect" flights and airlines and routes and types... no, don't bother to comment, I know I'm nuts...): Eastern Airlines

Neither have I flown on this one: Republic Airlines. They have been absorbed by Northwest Orient Airlines back then and I have flown them... but that doesn't really count, does it?

I just mentioned them before and yay, I managed to fly them! Even better, I love this commercial as they obviously have been a trendsetter: to ban smoking on planes - hooray for that!

...and OH MY GOD is this terrible, a commercial that looks as if a school class has thought of the plot and made the film...

Esthetically one of the beautiful commercials and I will 'love' United Airlines forever for their wonderful slogan "Come fly the friendly skies" and the use of Gershwin's "Rhapsody in blue" since ages in their commercials and on the telephone... ahhh... airline advertising the way I love it:

From the same airline here is a more vintage commercial, promoting the then brand new DC1o aircraft - look at the lounge in Economy class!!! Unthinkable of in today's hard economic times...

In an effort to differentiate themselves from their competition, Braniff Airlines declared the end of the plain plane. In the end, it did not help and today, the airline has long disappeared from the skies, no more BIG ORANGE (their bright orange coloured 747 jumbo jets) coming in to land at an airport near you...

Maybe the next airline has indeed been doing best what they did - they are still around and are comparatively healthy for an american airline. I always liked their color scheme, the classic ultra clean typeface, the silver bare metal colored fleet of aircraft and the use of the american colors white, blue and red:

And look at this marvel: TWA! Yes, I've flown them but not on the aircraft they advertise as brand new in this commercial, the L1011. Look at the spacious economy class cabin, again something that you will not find on any of today's airlines. Or look at the meal service: a full (giant) tray with a steak on it! Unbelievable! Nowadays, on some airlines like United you now even have to pay for a meal in Business class (on some flights)! Awww.... those were the times...

Well, I hope you enjoyed my little walk through airline commercials archives. If not, may I suggest to read any of my other non-aviation posts instead? Or maybe have a look at my blogger friends' recent posts? Check out their sites and click on the links provided to the right.

Thanks for your interest anyway and come back soon.

A bear hug.

This post was inspired by an article I read here.