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Today is the 60th anniversary of the first scheduled commercial flight of a jet airliner: the de Havilland Comet. The BOAC flight was by Comet G-ALYP from London to Johannesburg in 23 hours 23 minutes and 6 stops, arriving 25 minutes ahead of schedule. This compared with Lockheed Constellation flights the previous week, which took 31 hours and 3 stops. The journey was in three legs with three crews. London to Beiriut via Rome; Beirut to Khartoum via Cairo; Khartoum to Johannesburg via Entebbe and Livingstone. There was only one class, First Class. 36 passengers paid £315 return, or the equivalent of £7,800 today ($12,600). In 1960, the quickest route took 17 hours 5 minutes by BOAC Comet 4, via Rome, Khartoum and Nairobi, and cost £408 return (£7,500). In 1962, the fastest time had dropped further to 16 hours 55 minutes by BOAC Boeing 707, via Frankfurt, Rome and Athens, costing £450 (£7,900). I could not find historic one-stop flights, representative of mid-1970s Boeing 747s, but a one-stop flight today takes (typically) 17 hours, costing £5,500-£9,400 for a First Class return. The fastest flight I could find for this week is by British Airways Boeing 747, flying non stop in 9 hours 22 minutes. The equivalent ticket would have to be a First Class return, costing £9,323.
