SAAR 1958 Maiden Transpolar Flight AIR FRANCE Paris Anchorage Tokyo (AF58-P2 TYPE 2)

April 1958: Air France opens the “Polar Route” linking Paris to Tokyo

Air France’s first Paris-Tokyo flight, in a Lockheed Constellation, took place at the end of November 1952. The route then operated was over 15,000 kilometers long and followed the old “Route des Indes” (partly the Noguès Line). In April 1958, Air France opened the “Polar Route” linking Paris to Tokyo, via Anchorage. This weekly flight, operated by a Super Starliner equipped with 4 beds, 16 couchette seats and 34 “Tourist” seats, linked Paris to Tokyo in 27 hours 50.

From April 10 to 12, 1958, on the occasion of the “Inaugural Transpolar Flight Paris-Anchorage-Tokyo”, Air France organized the delivery of aerophilatelic mail from Paris. While the vast majority of correspondence was franked with French stamps, Paul Staedel and Heinz Grabowski, specialists in the Saarland and airmail, sent a small print run of envelopes franked with Saarland stamps, which had been politically attached to the FRG since 1957, but whose postage stamps bore the inscription “Deutsche Bundespost” and their face value expressed in “French francs”.

The Boeing 707 replaced the Super Starliner on the Polar Route in February 1960 and the flight time was reduced by more than 10 hours. In April 1970, Air France inaugurated the “Trans-Siberian Route” Paris-Moscow-Tokyo with 2 weekly flights, in 13 hours 45 minutes of flight. In 1972, the 707s were replaced by 747s and in April 1986, Air France launched a non-stop flight from Paris to Tokyo called "Soleil Levant". The two capitals were then connected in 12 hours.

In June 2004, Tokyo was served by the new B777-300ER equipped with "New Travel Spaces". As of September 1, 2010, Tokyo became the number 1 destination in Asia and the 3rd in the world after New York and Johannesburg served by the Air France A380.

source Air France