--- title: See Vintage Posters for Air Travel and Airline Destinations description: With summer air travel volume expected to see an increase over last year, see vintage airline posters that helped imaginations take flight. canonical: https://time.com/4756321/vintage-airline-posters/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-19T20:42:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:50:21.294Z article:section: History og:title: See Vintage Posters for Air Travel and Airline Destinations og:description: Summer air travel volume is expected to see an increase over last year og:url: https://time.com/4756321/vintage-airline-posters/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt556accf4dad7b8cd/6988cac68e0601537746a1cf/vintage-airline-poster-08.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Vintage Airline Poster og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See Vintage Posters for Air Travel and Airline Destinations twitter:description: Summer air travel volume is expected to see an increase over last year twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt556accf4dad7b8cd/6988cac68e0601537746a1cf/vintage-airline-poster-08.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See the Vintage Airline Posters That Helped Imaginations Take Flight by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/) and [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) May 19, 2017 8:42 PM UTC  TWA Europe circa 1960. TWA Europe circa 1960.Courtesy of AbeBooks by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/) and [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) May 19, 2017 8:42 PM UTC This week, the industry group Airlines for America [announced](http://airlines.org/news/airlines-for-america-projects-summer-air-travel-to-grow-4-percent/) that they’re projecting a record-high 234.1 million passengers would travel on a U.S. airline this summer, between June 1 and Aug. 31, 2017\. That number represents a 4% increase over last year’s [summer travel ](http://time.com/money/4380645/worst-airports-summer-travel/)volume, which analysts trace to an improving economy. Though such projections these days may most immediately provoke worry about [delays](http://time.com/money/4731747/what-to-do-flight-delayed-canceled/) and other airport problems, air travel wasn’t always something to be dreaded. These posters, from a collection [curated](https://www.flickr.com/photos/abebooks%5Finc/sets/72157682180444595) by AbeBooks.com, an online books and collectibles marketplace, are a reminder of what flying was like at the advent of the period seen as [the golden age of air travel](http://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-tips/airlines-airports/golden-age-flying-photos). In that period, starting in the 1950s, air travel was right in the sweet spot for accessible luxury: still new and exciting and with the trappings of luxury, but evolved enough that consumers had access to destinations that would have been out of reach for all but the richest in former decades. As Richard Davies [wrote](https://www.abebooks.com/art/vintage-airline-posters/) for AbeBooks, vintage airline posters can be very rare because they were not originally printed to be kept or purchased by consumers. They were ads that would be hung in relatively small numbers in places like airports, and they would be thrown away when the campaign was over. (This is [a problem for poster collectors ](http://time.com/4282408/national-parks-posters-wpa/)in general.) According to the book [_Art of the Airways_](https://www.amazon.com/Art-Airways-Geza-Szurovy/dp/0760313954#reader%5F0760313954) by Geza Szurovy, though airline poster art can be traced back to 1914 and the very first airline, the 1950s saw the form reach its peak just as aviation became a mature industry. Notably, posters from that period and later tended to focus not so much on the plane itself as where it could get you. “\[The\] allure of exotic destinations was a strong draw from the beginning,” Szurovy writes, “and as airline safety improved and speed was taken for granted the destination became the dominant theme.” As the posters above show, destination-themed posters reminded travelers of all the amazing places they could reach by plane, and enticed them to consider visiting new places. (One negative result of trying to sell the world to Americans, Davies notes, is that the airlines did sometimes turn to stereotypes as a shorthand.) After the 1950s, the art form began to fade, replaced gradually by advertisements that featured color photography instead.  Pan Am Oaxaca circa 1950. Courtesy of AbeBooks  Air France Corse / Corsica 1952. Courtesy of AbeBooks  SAS Norway 1958. Courtesy of AbeBooks  United Air Lines New York 1971. Courtesy of AbeBooks  TWA Spain circa 1960. Courtesy of AbeBooks  TCA Nassau 1954. Courtesy of AbeBooks  Pan Am Argentina 1951. Courtesy of AbeBooks  TWA Europe circa 1960. Courtesy of AbeBooks  Continental Colorado 1960. Courtesy of AbeBooks  BOAC Africa circa 1960. 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