Direct Link

It was first proposed in 1935, after Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh's flight to Moscow. It was included in a Soviet-U.S. cultural-exchange agreement in 1958. Then came a decade of talks, suspended whenever the cold war temperature dropped to chilly or freezing. Finally, this week, the first Moscow-New York commercial flight was set to take off.

Loaded with aviation officials and pressmen, the Soviet Union's huge Aeroflot jetliner, the Ilyushin-62, was scheduled to land at New York's Kennedy Airport after a stopover in Montreal. Total time: 12 hr. 40 min. A few hours later, a Pan American Boeing 707-321B jet was aimed for Moscow, via Copenhagen, for the 4,907-mile journey that was scheduled to last 10 hr. 35 min. Both planes were to return the next day, and both of the once-weekly flights will continue, with passengers paying from $548 for 14-to 21-day economy-class excursion trips to $1,109.50 for round-trip first class.

Primarily a matter of prestige for the U.S.S.R. and a gesture of East-West bridge building for the U.S., the direct air link is not expected to pay off in fast profits for either airline. By the end of last week, Pan American had found only 35 persons ready to embark on its first flight to Moscow.

For Pan Am, the Copenhagen stopover will help recover part of the expenses, since the Danish capital is a popular tourist spot. With one Russian visiting the U.S. for every seven Americans visiting Russia, Pan Am hopes to have a clear edge over the Soviet government-owned airline. Still, the Russians are expected to make the going great with vodka-caviar treats aboard IL-62 jets on the New York run. If so, this may lure away a number of prospective Pan American customers who would rather eat than sleep. "On a prestige flight like this," muses a Pan Am official, "who knows what Aeroflot will do?" Says Aeroflot's U.S. Representative Vladimir Samoroukov: "Our service will be very nice--I hope."

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