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1957 · 1950s · International

Cross Atlantic Airways

1957, Beirut International Airport, Lebanon: Two Douglas DC-3 propeller airliners of Cross Atlantic Airways parked tail-down on an airport apron in 1957, with flight crew and ground handlers loading baggage by hand. — Avanti Holding, Cross Atlantic Airways.
Cross Atlantic Airways takes its place on the apron in the airport's third year of operation, holding five IATA flying rights. Two Douglas DC-3s — twin Pratt & Whitney radials, twenty-eight seats, tailwheel down — worked the Nicosia–Athens–Rome legs and the Gulf run to Kuwait and Dhahran. Captain and first officer, a radio operator and a single stewardess flew each rotation; the aircraft were fuelled, loaded and turned around by hand in under an hour.
Date
Location
Beirut International Airport, Lebanon
Pictured
The two founding partners, a four-person flight crew and the airport ground handlers

Cross Atlantic Airways is launched with five IATA flying rights and two propeller aircraft from a Beirut base — the family's first regulated venture across the Gulf, the Levant and Europe.

Subject · Two Douglas DC-3 (Dakota) piston airliners

Source · Documentary recreation · Avanti HoldingDocumentary recreation commissioned by Avanti Holding — not an original archive photograph

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