PEK777 wrote:

Taipei to Hong Kong is the Golden Route.

I don't know if it's really a "named route", though. Golden Route is sort of a generic term for any route that are very profitable (At least the Chinese term, "黃金航線", is). Of course, the HKG-TPE route is certainly nowhere as profitable as it was with the increased amount of cross-strait flights.

On the other hand, if you Google "Golden Route" it actually refers to the most common Japan tourist circuit (Tokyo->Hakone/Mount Fuji->(via Shinkansen)Kyoto->Osaka)

ridgid727 wrote:

Trans Canada
"The North Star" #1 Montreal-Middle Canada-Vancouver

The North Star referred to the aircraft type, then the Canadair DC-4M North Star.

TCA didn't start naming flights until the Super Connie arrived. The "Pacific Mercury" was originally YYZ-YWG-YVR. The "Atlantic Mercury" was YVR-YWG-YYZ. When nonstops YYZ-YVR-YYZ started, they took those respective names. At the same time, "Calgary Mercury" was YYZ-YYC-YVR-YYC-YYZ and "Edmonton Mercury" was YYZ-YEG-YVR-YEG-YYZ.

Later marketing names started in the 1960s. "Club Calypso" for outer Caribbean flights, "Western Arrow" for YVR/YEG/YYC/YWG to the UK and Europe, "Galaxy" for California flights and "Europe 870/Canada 871" for YYZ-YUL-ORY-FRA flights. Replite with named menus, playing cards, ticket folders, candy dishes, etc. They have become quite the collection items.

Internally, we still refer to Western Arrows when talking about YVR/YYC-UK/Europe.

B747forever wrote:

One I think of immediately is LH’s SFO-FRA-BLR called the Bangalore express.

SFO-FRA-MAA can be called as the Chennai Express then?

Probably a relic of naming train routes. Orient Express, Empire Builder, Sunset Limited, etc. I'm sure that all over the world train routes were named before plane routes.

Don't forget Southwests Texas Triangle. It's still referred as that to this day: DAL-HOU-SAT-DAL.

Doesn't SonAir refer to their LAD-IAH route as the "Houston Express"?

ikramerica wrote:

Probably a relic of naming train routes. Orient Express, Empire Builder, Sunset Limited, etc. I'm sure that all over the world train routes were named before plane routes.

That's probably because trains came way before planes did!

New York to Tokyo used to be known as the "Rising Sun" route

quickmover wrote:

Cunard wrote:

Western Airlines DEN to LGW was called 'The Londoner' including decals on their single DC10-30 that operated on the route.

Maybe off subject, but how did western with a hub 400 miles away in SLC wind up flying a Denver route?

At the time of Western Airlines flying DEN to LGW the Bermuda II agreement didn't have SCL as a listed transatlantic gateway so Western took up the Denver route.

Arion640 wrote:

BA used to call the LHR-Scotland flights the super shuttle, i think maybe manchester got included in that too.
These flights are still loosely reffered to as the shuttle's now.

Heard UK-Orlando flights referred to as the Disney shuttle and toytown express.

Bucket and spade routes are a generic UK term for sun destinations.

Not just the LHR Scotland routes although I think they were the first to have them.

British Airways used the term 'Super Shuttle' on their domestic trunk routes from London Heathrow to Aberdeen, Belfast, Glasgow, Edinburgh Manchester and Newcastle.

TWA772LR wrote:

Don't forget Southwests Texas Triangle. It's still referred as that to this day: DAL-HOU-SAT-DAL.

AFAIK the term Texas Triangle usually simply refers to the 3 "points" of the triangle (Dallas, Houston, San Antonio) + Austin anyway. Never heard WN referring to those intra-Texas routes as "Texas Triangle".

Air New Zealand certainly missed a good opportunity by not naming their AKL-LAX-LHR service the "Kiwi Route."

SA’s JNB - PER flight is often called the Emigration Express.

spauls121 wrote:

Air New Zealand certainly missed a good opportunity by not naming their AKL-LAX-LHR service the "Kiwi Route."

I think its usually called the Southern Cross Route.

Also, I think Air Serbia should refer to Belgrade - New York as the Tesla Route (given Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American). Maybe Elon would be happy to throw some sponsorship money their way.

Are we actually looking for names that airlines used in official advertising such as the Kangaroo Route for BOAC/British Airways or the Fiesta Route for Qantas or rather made up names such

Emigration Express???

When Central America had multiple airlines, Tan Sahsa used to have a milk run called "El Centroamericano" (the Central American):

PTY-SJO-MGA-TGU-SAP-GUA-SAL.

And it even had a slogan: "Todas las capitales, todos los días". (Every capital, every day).

JL NRT-JFK
"Executive Express" from 1983 until 1990.
B747-246B (JA8161, JA8162, JA8169)
F44/C128/Y114


JL NRT-JFK, NRT-LHR
"Big Apple Express" and "Big Ben Express" from 1992 until 1997
B747-446 (JA8087,JA8088,JA8089,JA8901)
F19/C100/Y188


JL NRT-HNL, ITM-HNL
"Aloha Express" from 1981 until 1983.
B747-246B (JA8149, JA8150)
All Y 429

SAS had 3 that comes into my mind
CPH-TAS-BKK-SIN: Trans Asia Express
CPH-SVO-NRT: Trans Siberia Express

OSL-CPH-FRA-MUC internally had a knick name: The Banana Express..

Also when started CPH-SEA-LAX...The WestCoast Express, since SAS was first European carrier flying to the westcoast

quickmover wrote:

Cunard wrote:

Western Airlines DEN to LGW was called 'The Londoner' including decals on their single DC10-30 that operated on the route.

Maybe off subject, but how did western with a hub 400 miles away in SLC wind up flying a Denver route?

I believe it was before they started the SLC hub. At the the time WA had a pretty big presence in DEN.

zakuivcustom wrote:

I don't know if it's really a "named route", though. Golden Route is sort of a generic term for any route that are very profitable

Similarly, the Sydney-(Canberra)-Melbourne-Brisbane arrangement is well known in Australian aviation as the Golden Triangle, but it's nothing more than a nickname.

Slash787 wrote:

New York to Tokyo used to be known as the "Rising Sun" route

You've reminded me there of long-gone named route - QF's wartime "Double-Sunrise Service" between Perth and Koggala (later Karachi), so named for the two sunrises observed during the circa 30-hour flight time, that replaced the normal Kangaroo Route during the Japanese occupation of South-East Asia.

ikramerica wrote:

Probably a relic of naming train routes. Orient Express, Empire Builder, Sunset Limited, etc. I'm sure that all over the world train routes were named before plane routes.

Some memories there too - unfortunately a great number of those names have fallen into the past was well now, though Amtrak remain a great bastion for them. I have a particular fondness for the prime overnight service between Sydney and Melbourne that for many years carried the name "Southern Aurora".

mikegigs wrote:

Hi All,

I was watching an older movie last night (Planes, Trains, & Automobiles) and noticed that in a scene at a Chicago L station, there was an advertisement for "The Sun Run" by America West. I did some Googling to find out what this route was (at least I assume it was the name of a specific routing) but couldn't find anything. I then started to think about other named routes or flights, for example the "Golden Argosy" in the movie Airport or the real-life "Kangaroo Route".

So, does anybody have any information on this specific America West route? Additionally, what were other named routes by airlines and why did they start (then stop) this practice? I think it does give a sort of glamour to specific routes, but I understand it probably stopped when frequencies rose above daily. Always happy to hear information about such history.

Thanks in advance!

"The Sun Run" was only an advertising slogan and we never named any specific routes at HP.

SeaDoo wrote:

cschleic wrote:

GE90man wrote:

Alaska Airlines milk run, not too familiar with the actual stops in the route, but a quick google search should turn up results

Not only Google but the alaskaair.com site has its own page: https://blog.alaskaair.com/destinations ... un-flight/

Generally, it's SEA to ANC or ANC to SEA with a lot of stops in between.

Don't know if they still do it now that they don't have the.66 seat combis, but I think it was Seattle. To Juneau to yakutat.to Cordova to Anchorage.

They absolutely still have it! Mostly on the 737-7/800 since the combi is gone

The biggest ones are:
AS65/64: SEA-KTN-WRG-PSG-JNU-ANC
AS61/66: SEA-JNU-CDV-YAK-ANC

Not sure of the flight numbers, but there's also SEA-KTN-SIT-JNU and a couple others.

packmedic wrote:

Not sure of the flight numbers, but there's also SEA-KTN-SIT-JNU and a couple others.

I found AS67 SEA-KTN-SIT-JNU-ANC and AS62 ANC-JNU-SIT-KTN-SEA

Not quite full "milk run", there's AS 69/60 SEA-KTN-JNU

quickmover wrote:

Cunard wrote:

Western Airlines DEN to LGW was called 'The Londoner' including decals on their single DC10-30 that operated on the route.

Maybe off subject, but how did western with a hub 400 miles away in SLC wind up flying a Denver route?

WA had not yet established SLC as its sole intermountian hub by the time the Londoner started (very early 80s). They actually had a larger operation in DEN during regulation and just after deregulation, but both DEN and SLC operated as large focus cities with LA being the headquarters (though I think DEN was still larger than LAX operationally). After CO, FL (Frontier 1), and UA established dominance in Denver in the 83-84 timeframe, WA established its sole connecting hub in SLC.

I’m guessing Denver got the London flight pre sole-SLC hub since it was a considerably larger city with a much busier airport with more connections to more cities. Remember, in those days, interline (other airline) connections were much more common as the modern hub hadn’t quite evolved and one or two Airlines generally didn’t dominate a busy airport.

http://www.departedflights.com/WA090480.html

Once on the AA RDU-LHR flight, the pilot referred to it as the "Pharma Flight" (or maybe stylized as the "Pharma Phlight")

DUDEofJETS wrote:

mikegigs wrote:

Hi All,

I was watching an older movie last night (Planes, Trains, & Automobiles) and noticed that in a scene at a Chicago L station, there was an advertisement for "The Sun Run" by America West. I did some Googling to find out what this route was (at least I assume it was the name of a specific routing) but couldn't find anything. I then started to think about other named routes or flights, for example the "Golden Argosy" in the movie Airport or the real-life "Kangaroo Route".

So, does anybody have any information on this specific America West route? Additionally, what were other named routes by airlines and why did they start (then stop) this practice? I think it does give a sort of glamour to specific routes, but I understand it probably stopped when frequencies rose above daily. Always happy to hear information about such history.

Thanks in advance!

"The Sun Run" was only an advertising slogan and we never named any specific routes at HP.

Thank you! That explains why I couldn't find anything online about this alleged route.

And for other repliers, I didn't think about trains being the origins of this practice but that totally makes sense. I wish they still did it more today - it adds a bit of regality to flying important routes IMHO.