Before the Fall of the Iron Curtain, all of the Soviet block airlines in Eastern Europe operated entirely Soviet built fleets of aircraft, which included the AN-24 and IL-18 for short haul and domestics service, along with the Tupolev Tu-134 and Tu-154 for medium range intra European service, and the IL-62 for their limited international routes which for some of the carriers included Montreal, and New York.
Polskie Linie Lotnicze – LOT Polish Airlines IL-14 SP-LNN at Paris Orly airport circa 1960s.
These airlines included LOT Polish, Tarom Romania, CSA Czech Airlines, Balkan and Bulair of Romania and Malev of Hungary. Most of the Government and Head of State aircraft for these Iron Block countries were also supplied by Soviet builders.
Only the airlines of Jugoslavia operated Western built airliners, both the State airline JAT Jugoslav and the handful of charter airlines that offered tourists flights to the region’s summer beach destinations mostly in present day Croatia.
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Most of these airlines were quiet frequently photographed throughout Western Europe at locations like Frankfurt, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Zurich, Munich, Dusseldork (will anyone catch this typo!) during the 1970s.
Thank you very much for visiting this page, and enjoy!
LOT Polish Airlines IL-18 SP-LSD circa late 1960s.LOT Polish IL-62 SP-LAB at London Heathrow circa early 1970s.LOT Polish IL-62 SP-LAA at London Heathrow circa early 1970s.LOT Polish Airlines IL-18 SP-LDI at AMS 1980.LOT Polish Airlines Tu-134 SP-LHA at GVA 1972.LOT Polish Airlines IL-18 SP-LDC at HEL April 1974 (Dr. John Blatherwick photo).LOT Polish Airlines IL-62 at YYZ February 1974 (Dr. John Blatherwick photo).LOT Polish Airlines IL-62 at LHRNovember 1973.CSA Airlines IL-62 OK-ZBC at ZRH May 1979.CSA Airlines IL-18 OK-DAC at LHR 1960s.CSA Airlines IL-62 OK-129 at LHR 1970s.CSA Airlines Tu-134 PK-CFG at LHR May 1973.CSA Airlines Tu-134 PK-CFG at HEL April 1974.General Air Yak-40 D-BOBE June 1973. General Air was quite an unusual operator of Soviet built airliners as they were based in West Germany. The Yak-40 was a very versatile general use short haul jet transport as evidenced here sitting on a grace field as some sort of public display or airshow.Yugoslavia Government IL-18 YA-AIB Paris June 1974.Aviogenex Tupolev Tu-134 YU-AHI at MAN November 1970.JAT Yugoslav DC-9-30 YU-AJH 1973.Inex-Adria Airways DC-9 YU-AMJ 1970s.Pan Adria DC-9 YU-AJF at LGW June 1973 in former Swissair colours.Hungarian Government Tupolev Tu-134 HA-925 circa mid 1970s.Malev Hungarian Tupolev Tu-154 HA-LCA at FRA June 1977.Bulgarian Air Transport IL=18 LZ-BER at Paris late 1960s.Bulair IL-18 LZ-BED at MAN late 1960s.CSA Czech Airlines Tu-124 OK-TEA at Helsinki Airport circa 1969.Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Tupolev Tu-134 LZ-TUF at Paris Orly circa early 1970s.Bulgarian Air Transport IL-18 LZ-BEA at London Heathrow airport May 1973.Balkan Bulgarian An-12 LZ-BAB at London Heathrow airport May 1974.Tarom Romanian IL-18 YR-IMZ at an unknown airport May 1973.Tarom Romanian AN-24 YR-AMB at an unknown airport June 1974.Interflug IL-18 DM-STL at an unknown airport May 1973.Interflug Tu-124 DM-SDA at Berlin Schonefeld Airport May 1973.Interflug AN-24 DM-SBH at Berlin Schonefeld Airport May 1973.CSA Ceskoslovenske Airlines Tupolev Tu-104 OK-TEA at Paris Orly circa late 1960s.CSA Ceskoslovenske Aerolinte Airlines Tupolev Tu-104 OK-NDD possibly at Helsinki circa late 1960s.CSA Ceskoslovenske Aerolinte Airlines IL-62 CCCP-86672 leased from Aeroflot at London Heathrow airport circa late 1960s.LOT Polish Airlines IL-62 SP-LAC at Toronto airport May 1975.Polskie Linie Lotnicze – LOT Polish Airlines IL-18 SP-LSD at Paris Orly airport May 1973.Polskie Linie Lotnicze – LOT Polish Airlines IL-14 SP-LNN at Paris Orly airport circa 1960s.Malev Hungarian Airlines IL-18 HA-MOH at London Heathrow airport circa 1973.Malev Hungarian Airlines Tu-134 HA-LBD possibly at Copenhagen circa mid 1970s.Malev Hungarian Airlines IL-14 HA-MAD possibly at Copenhagen circa late 1960s.Bulair Bulgarian Air Transport AN-12 LZ-BAA at London Heathrow Airport circa late 1960s.Balkan Bulgarian Air Lines IL-18 LZ-BET at Paris Orly airport circa early 1970s.Balkan Bulgarian Air Lines AN-24 LZ-ANA at Paris Orly airport circa early 1970s.Balkan Bulgarian Air Lines IL-18 LZ-BEV at Paris Orly airport circa early 1970s.Balkan Bulgarian Airlines Tupolev Tu-134 LZ-TUB at Paris Orly airport circa early 1970s.
