Delta started service across the Pacific Ocean this month in 1987. Lockheed L-1011s flew from Atlanta to our “Gateway to the Pacific”–Portland, Oregon, and onto Tokyo, beginning March 2, 1987. By the end of the year, we also served Seoul, Korea, with three weekly flights from Atlanta via Portland.
Now from Northwest Airlines, comes a wonderfully rich history of crossing the Pacific. The Delta Museum is working on an exhibit about NWA, and I’m enjoying learning how the airline grew to carry the most passengers across the Pacific.
Before Northwest in 1947, no airline flew the chilly, northern “Great Circle” shortcut to Asia. Drawing on wartime experience in the Artic, Northwest flew Douglas DC-4s from Edmonton, Canada, and Anchorage, Alaska, refueled at the military airfield on Shemya at the tip of the Aleutian Islands, and crossed the Pacific by circling north of the earth’s equator to Tokyo, Shanghai and Manila. Flying a route 2,000 miles closer to Japan than the warm weather, mid-Pacific route pioneered by Pan Am, Northwest planes could fly Twin Cities to Tokyo in 33 hours.
This commemorative cover announces start of Northwest’s Boeing Stratocruiser service to Tokyo in 1952.
Marie Force
Archives Manager
March 7th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Why did Delta discontinue their “Gateway to the Pacific” in Portland? Are there plans to re-initiate it?
March 7th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
To find out more on NWA’s “60 Years of Bridging the Pacific” go to this website.
http://asia.nwa.com/asia/en/60years/index.html
The video and info is very informative.
March 9th, 2009 at 11:25 am
It’s a shame that all this history is going away, sure you can argue that “Northwest is now Delta” but its really not…
Skymiler apparently from what I have heard is that the Delta name is not well recognized in Asia and doesn’t have a good name because of what the Japanese have called “Deportland” since there was such a high number of people being sent back upon arrival into Portland and since just about all of DL’s Asia operations went through there it hurt business and the name, this is just what I heard, and if that is true then Delta is going to really have to work hard to replace a well known, highly recognized name in Asia compared to one that basically doesn’t hardly exist in Asia.
March 9th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
burnsie28,
Interesting regarding “Deportland.” I’m assuming that issue is now fixed, correct? I’d love to see a transpacific 757 ER/ 767 hub in PDX again. It’s such a great airport and city!
March 11th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
Burnsie, why don’t you leave the negative comments for A.net?
Apparently, you didn’t read the entire article where it states that NW’s history across the Pacific will be in an exhibit at the DL museum in ATL, so NW’s history is NOT going away.