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One of the first Australian airlines to operate transpacific commercial air services to America was BCPA (British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines) which was formed by the governments of Australia, Great Britain, and New Zealand in 1947. Transpacific service was launched the same year and branded the “Southern Cross” route, which originally consisted of stops in Sydney, Auckland, Fiji, Canton Island, Hawai’i, San Francisco, and Vancouver. In 1948, BCPA received the new, long-range, pressurized Douglas DC-6 airliner for operation on their Southern Cross route. For the long, forty-hour, multi-stop flight, each aircraft was comfortably equipped with reclining seats, sleeping berths, and a lounge in the aft. They carried as many as forty-eight passengers but usually averaged far fewer. “Flying the Southern Cross Route: Seventy-Five years of Australian Commercial Air Service to North America” is on display, pre-security, in the Aviation Museum and Library, located on the departures level of the International Terminal and online at: https://bit.ly/3oyMqFX
This image was posted on February 16, 2023.