How to watch

Based on Arthur Hailey's bestselling novel, Airport follows a snowstorm, a stalled jet and a bomber aboard a Rome-bound flight. The 1970 film became a box office smash and earned ten Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Universal followed it with three sequels, each piling on new aviation disasters and big-name casts, and George Kennedy's mechanic Joe Patroni is the only character to appear in all four. The ensemble format, with intertwining personal dramas, became the template for the decade. Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin and Helen Hayes, who won an Oscar for her stowaway role, headline the original.

🕐 Release Order

Release order is also the order of Joe Patroni's rise from chief mechanic to airline executive and pilot.

1. Airport (1970)
2. Airport 1975 (1974)
3. Airport '77 (1977)
4. The Concorde... Airport '79 (1979)

Apart from Patroni, each sequel tells a self-contained disaster story with a new cast — a mid-air collision, a jumbo jet sunk in the Bermuda Triangle and a Concorde targeted by missiles.

📖 Story Chronology

The chronology follows release order, so you can watch Patroni's career progress across the decade.

1. Airport (1970)
2. Airport 1975 (1974)
3. Airport '77 (1977)
4. The Concorde... Airport '79 (1979)

Which Order Should You Choose?

Watch in release order. The original is a polished, old-school Hollywood drama, while the sequels get gloriously more outlandish. Once you're done, queue up Airplane! — it spoofs these films, and especially the 1957 Zero Hour!, so lovingly that it plays even funnier afterwards. The full series makes a great retro marathon for fans of 70s Hollywood star power.

🔗 Related Guides

• Airplane! Watch OrderGuide
• Speed Watch OrderGuide
• Die Hard Watch OrderGuide

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