Around the 1980s or so TWA had a long haul flight from JFK to Cairo. Then, they had a semi-short haul to Riyadh. Why do airlines do that? Is it for crew reasons?

Nope, it's usually because a long haul flight goes to a hub, then short haul flights connect from the hub to regional airports.

 

A bit like getting a Greyhound bus to New York City, and then jumping on a local bus or hailing a cab once there, to get to your hotel or whatever.

 

Al

It's known as a through city. They usually drop passengers off at the first stop and take the rest to the end destination.

Nope, it's usually because a long haul flight goes to a hub, then short haul flights connect from the hub to regional airports.

 

A bit like getting a Greyhound bus to New York City, and then jumping on a local bus or hailing a cab once there, to get to your hotel or whatever.

 

Al

 

ahh, maybe there was an agreement with another airline? Like Star Alliance etc..?

It's only a short hop relative to the transatlantic flight. Riyadh is close to a thousand miles from Cairo, so there may also have been fuel considerations involved.

 

My best guess, though, is that there wasn't enough demand to justify a direct flight from JFK to Riyadh by an American carrier.

Possibly, unless it is, as Chris says, the same aircraft you are talking about, landing and then making another short hop, in which case that would indeed be a through city flight. Although I presumed you meant flying somewhere on a big jet, and then getting onto a smaller one for a continuing flight, which is sometimes necessary for reasons of fuel, range or available runway length. So generally speaking, it is most economical for big jets to ply back and forth to hubs and let smaller regional aircraft join up the local dots.

 

As you say, for alliances and code sharing arrangements, a classic example of that would be something like flying to Glasgow from maybe New York. Most transatlantic flights would land in the UK at either Manchester or London, but you can then get a shuttle flight to Glasgow from those places. So you might buy a ticket with American Airlines which is valid for the entire flight, cross the ocean on a Triple Seven, but find yourself on a British Airways 737 from Heathrow to Glasgow, since both AA and BA are part of the One World airline alliance.

 

Al

Sometimes government's enforced a rule like that. In Ireland we had the blasted "Shannon Stopover" rule whereby every transatlantic flight to and from Ireland had to stop in Shannon. Parish pump politics has finally been subdued enough though to have it removed back in '04 IIRC. Good riddance I say.

 

Capt. Rónán O Cadhain.

Yup, that's another reason on occasion. And not just for aeroplanes; that one's still in force for trains in my home town. Every passenger train from Manchester which crosses the famous Viaduct across the Mersey that you pass over when on long finals to 23 at EGCC, has to stop at Stockport. The borough forced an Act of Parliament to make that a requirement when they funded some of the building of that bridge.

 

Al

If Riyadh was the intended final destination (Range 6600+nm), the problem was fuel! In the day TWA only had a couple of aircraft that could possibly make it nonstop, just barely, and I think they didn't have too many aircraft of the types, so the ones they had may have been assigned to other flights. They were the 747-200, which would be cutting it close with a 6800+ range, and the 747SP which may just barely make it. The 747-100's of which they had more of, had no where near the range needed. So it doesn't look like they had a choice, but to make a stop!!

I once flew to Geneva from New York city on American...but the flight stopped in Zurich first and after that stop, there were only a handful of us on the 767. It's a very short hop from Zurich to Geneva...and I don't think American flies there any longer. I also took a flight from NYC to Milan over thirty years ago, and that flight stopped in Munich first. So such routings are probably fairly common, depending on the airline and profitability of the routes.

 

John

Probably a combination of fuel and through city as people have said. Most likely there was not enough demand for two direct flights (one to Cairo and one to Riyadh), but combined they could fill one plane (and maybe earn a bit from people wanting to fly Cairo-Riyadh as well).

(and maybe earn a bit from people wanting to fly Cairo-Riyadh as well).

 

It has been awhile since my aviation law class but cabatoge rules might have prohibited this.