I worked in Anchorage at Alaska Air when the Russia flights started, then went to Aeroflot. I can say that the 732 was used only for the first flights when the iron curtain "thawed." They were out of Nome to the nearby Chukhotka Pennisula. I think there were trips to Anadyr and Provedenyia. My documents are all boxed up right now, but I recall these were in the very late 1980s. Then scheduled service began Anchorage-Magadan-Khabarovsk with 727-200 with extra fuel tank in pit 4. Vladivostok was added the next year and MD-80s replaced the 722. Sometimes with tailwinds, it'd make Khabarovsk-Anchorage nonstop. If I recall correctly, the route was A81 over Russia to Nome then down to Anchorage. There were issues of cost of operation in Russia, but the economy also took a turn, meaning it was harder for school groups to get funds, etc. And the pent-up demand by adventure travelers seeking to be among the first to explore formerly forbidden areas was dried up within a few years. With the tourist market essentially gone, and businessmen finding out bureaucratic red tape exceeded opportunities, demand for service waned. Reeve Aleutian Airways had a successful 727-100 combi service to more resource-oriented Russian Far East communities from Anchorage, but they went out of business. Aeroflot pulled out of Anchorage in the late 1990s. Mavial/Magadan Airlines has been continually serving for years. And a new outfit is trying to start new ANC to Yuzhno Sakhalins k (an oil rich area) in October using chartered or leased Miami Air 737-800s. That service is supposed to continue on to Seattle and Houston. ASA did run 707s to the far east and west of the USSR from Anchorage in 1970 and 1971. I don't have my material handy to confirm how many or when they ended. Mike ----- Original Message ----- From: Matthew Montano <mmontano@xxxxxxxxx> Date: Saturday, August 28, 2004 2:07 pm Subject: Re: any airline fly from the West coast to Russia? > --Apple-Mail-1--544074478 > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > Content-Type: text/plain; > charset=US-ASCII; > format=flowed > > Prior to the 737NGs, I can't imagine Alaskan had any aircraft to get > from ANC to anywhere civilized in Russia. > > It is one heck of a long way and very deceiving on a Mercator > projection map. > > I know Alaskan serves a couple of posts on the Aleutian islands, > but I > do believe they are seasonal. > > Matthew > (Disconnected as I write this) > > On 28-Aug-04, at 12:19 AM, Alireza Alivandivafa wrote: > > > They used to fly SEA-ANC-Russian Far East. Though the route > changed,> they > > always flew to Vladivastok and Magadan, along with a few other > places> over time. > > They had MD-80s doing it for a while, which is when they found out > > they > > don't do well in the conditions and limited their cold flying and > > shoot them to > > Mexico. I believe they flew 732 flights toward the end. > > > > In a message dated 8/27/2004 12:58:44 PM Central Daylight Time, > > DZTOPS@xxxxxxx writes: > > Alaska airlines flew (or flys?) from Alaska to Siberia I think-- > just a > > short > > westbound trip--not what you were probably thinking of. > > --Apple-Mail-1--544074478 > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > Content-Type: text/enriched; > charset=US-ASCII > > Prior to the 737NGs, I can't imagine Alaskan had any aircraft to get > from ANC to anywhere civilized in Russia. > > > It is one heck of a long way and very deceiving on a Mercator > projection map. > > > I know Alaskan serves a couple of posts on the Aleutian islands, > but I > do believe they are seasonal. > > > Matthew > > (Disconnected as I write this) > > <bold> </bold> > > On 28-Aug-04, at 12:19 AM, Alireza Alivandivafa wrote: > > > <excerpt>They used to fly SEA-ANC-Russian Far East. Though the route > changed, they > > always flew to Vladivastok and Magadan, along with a few other places > over time. > > They had MD-80s doing it for a while, which is when they found out > they > > don't do well in the conditions and limited their cold flying and > shoot them to > > Mexico. I believe they flew 732 flights toward the end. > > > In a message dated 8/27/2004 12:58:44 PM Central Daylight Time, > > DZTOPS@xxxxxxx writes: > > Alaska airlines flew (or flys?) from Alaska to Siberia I think-- > just a > short > > westbound trip--not what you were probably thinking of. > > </excerpt> > --Apple-Mail-1--544074478-- >