6. Alden 1978 poster

The 70’s were a rocky time in the aviation world, particularly in America. The Oil Crisis of 1973 and De-Regulation in 1978 forced many airlines to suddenly abandon ambitious plans carried over from the 60’s, and rapidly adapt to a much more competitive market that was much more expensive to operate in. This forced the closure of many airlines in the following years, and brought many more to the brink of bankruptcy.

Alden suffered too. The cancellation of the Boeing 2707 program due to ballooning development costs and environmental concerns in 1971, combined with skyrocketing fuel prices just two years later, forced Alden to re-structure its fleet. New aircraft such as the 747 and DC-8 Series 70 promised greater range and fuel economy thanks to their high-bypass turbofan engines. Meanwhile, orders for less efficient aircraft such as the Concorde were cancelled.

Furthermore, De-regulation in 1978 meant that Alden was no longer guaranteed a profit on any of its services, and would be forced to compete directly with not only old rivals such as Sierra Pacific, Vanguard, and Grand West, but a new class of airline - the Low Cost Carrier.

This forced Alden to cut ticket prices dramatically, which in turn meant that the airline had to cut operating costs even further than they had during the Oil Crisis. These included the retirement of the 707’s, the re-fitting of the DC-8’s with CFM-56 engines, the simplification of crew uniforms, a reduction in the number of types and aircraft in the fleet, and the sale of the entire Latin-American network.

Perhaps one of the airline’s most internally controversial cost-cutting decisions, aside from the sale of the Latin-American network, was its 1977 livery. The previous livery, dubbed ‘the Red Rocket,’ was adored by the airline’s staff for its radical departure from contemporary design trends and its subtle resemblance to spacecraft such as the Mercury and Saturn rockets. The new livery, designed to be easy and cheap to paint, was comparatively dull. Nonetheless, Alden would paint aircraft in this livery well into the 80’s.

Seen above are a DC-8-73 and a Boeing 747-100 in the 1977 livery.

The DC-8 Series 70 were merely Series 60 aircraft re-fitted with CFM56 engines. The example shown above, N290AL, was delivered with JT3D engines as a DC-8-63 in 1972. She was re-painted in 1978 and re-fitted with the CFM’s in 1983. She served with Alden for a further 8 years, and was retired in 1990 after 18 years with the airline.

The 747-100 was a revolutionary aircraft. At the time of its introduction in 1970, it was the largest passenger aircraft in service. With 2 isles and 2 decks, the ‘Queen of the Skies’ also was the first wide-body passenger jet. The new airliner also enabled lower ticket prices, making air travel more accessible to the masses. Alden was among the first to receive theirs, being one of three launch customers for the type (the others being Vanguard and Columbia). The airline operated a fleet of 12 -100’s from 1970 to 1994. The 747 was the flagship type of the fleet, and each aircraft was christened with its own name commemorating historical events, ships, people, and places. The aircraft shown above, N989AL, was the second to be delivered, and was named ‘Spirit of Mayflower’.

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