Large plane/short sectors

[Dewdrop]

I flew today on a Cypress Airways A330 from Larnaca to Manchester, but the first sector was actually from Larnaca to Paphos a distance of 65 miles.
Does anyone know of a larger plane routinely flying a shorter sector ??

[WHBM]

Larnaca to Paphos is 82 miles Great Circle.

Dubai to Abu Dhabi is 80 miles. Lufthansa 747-400s and other widebodies make this trip. Incidenally the schedule time for this sector is 40 minutes, giving an average speed of 120 mph, which might be below the 744s stalling speed ?!

[pure digital]

:O what about Dublin to shannon on a flapper:ugh:

:ok: cool:hmm:

[akerosid]

Dublin - Shannon is actually around 120 miles, but against that, it is something that EI has had to put up with for many years and has to do every day, unlike CY, which only operates from Larnaca to Paphos on the odd flight, as it deems necessary.

Interestingly, Aer Lingus's Chicago flight has one of the longest and shortest A330-300 sectors on one flight; DUB-ORD on a winter's day, with holding etc. can take around 9 hours.

[Hotel Mode]

How about Bahrain-Doha. BA do it with the 744. Aboput 15-20 mins airborne normally

[Frankfurt_Cowboy]

Back in the eighties/early nineties Wardair used to do LBA-BHX on a 747.

[Bigscotdaddy]

Either BMI or KLM/UK (can't remember which) used to fly Gla - Edi en-route Copenhagen - possibly still do.

[WHBM]

Hotel mode:

Bahrain - Doha is 91 miles. A close contender.

[Dewdrop]

I was suprised on the Larnaca-Paphos leg at the hieght we attained 10K+ ft.

[10 DME ARC]

I 've done KIN-MBJ with BA and back a few times in a B742, 73nm it says in the internet. Half full and very little fuel, great stuff! BA don't do this now though.:(

[WHBM]

KIN-MBJ is 84 (statute) miles and Air Jamaica occasionally do it on an A340, so another close contender, but still looking for that elusive sub-80 miler.

Dewdrop, regarding elevation attained on short flights, your sector was 82 miles direct, probably nearer 100 allowing for manoeuvring. So attaining a height of 2 miles on the way is actually not much of a gradient. Don't know how the airspace is divided up in Cyprus.

[seacue]

Not such a large plane, but long ago (as SLF) I did Omaha - Lincoln [Nebraska] on a United 737-200. The distance is approximately 55 miles. That is in Tall TV Tower country and one almost got the impression we were looking UP at those 2000-footers.

[Bezi l]

bigscotdaddy is right... bmi used to operate GLA-EDI-CPH, a distance of 43 miles between GLA & EDI. However, it was only on Fokker 100's, and I thought this topic was for big aircraft / small sectors??

bl
xx

[big.al]

My in-laws once flew EMA to Heraklion (Crete) via Manchester to pick up some more pax. EMA to MAN must be all of 30 miles max as the 737 flies.... wonder if they stayed below cloud in VMC and did it the old fashioned way.....

A mate of mine flew on an MD-11 from Denver to somewhere close...can't remember the airport - but he said it was 43 miles....

Don't 747s operate between very nearby cities in Japan? Must take longer to board and deplane the pax than to complete the gate to gate sector.....

[Otterman]

For years we used to make intermediate stops on the smaller Dutch antilles island on our way to the main airport at Curacao. The shortest sector was Bonaire to Curacao at 41 nm. We did this using our Boeing 747 classic equipment. Shortest airtime for me was 9 minutes from brakes release to landing. Mostly visual flying was a lot of fun. Although it could come at times that you were pretty tired, just having done the first stretch of 9.5 hours from Amsterdam. Now Aruba and Bonaire have airports large enough to accomodate direct flights and those tail-ends are becoming much rarer.

In the Gulf our 767's make a lot of those kind of short tail-end sectors. Dubai-Abu Dhabi, Damman-Doha, Bahrain-Abu Dhabi, all combinations are possible. In Africa our shortest is Malabo-Douala at 62 nm at the moment.
Regards O.

[TopBunk]

We (BA) about 12 years ago used to fly CPH-MMX - about 25nm (track) - not above 2500ft. I remember the MMX-CPH clearance as ' Clear take off, climb 2500ft. After t/o turn right turn 270 deg cleared for ILD 30. Some people managed to get up to 350kts:cool: . Dangle everything at max speed schedule and grin and bear the pucker factor:D . Airborne under 6 minutes.

[Desk Driver]

Does MANCHESTER to BLACKPOOL count? One of my first flights was Gatwick - Manchester - Blackpool on a BIA Hearld (OK not big at all) I believe it might've even had a name of The Silver Arrow or something like that

[seacue]

quote
---------------------------------
A mate of mine flew on an MD-11 from Denver to somewhere close...can't remember the airport - but he said it was 43 miles....
---------------------------------

Nothing else within 43 miles of Denver can handle a mainline jet. The route you mention was likely DEN to COS [Colorado Springs], about 73 miles from the present Denver airport, a few less from Stapleton.

[pure digital]

What about good old AirUK with they Newcastle to Tees-side service

[AlphaCharlie]

Ok its about 150nm so its not as short as some sectors already mentioned here but ... LGW - MAN ...

Lots of charter (sorry leisure) airlines operate MAN - LGW - xxx or vice versa. I know last summer Air Atlanta were doing a LGW-MAN-POP using a 747-200, and BY regularly do MAN-LGW-MLE using a 767-300.

Also BA used to operate to Islamabad from LHR via MAN (using a 747-400 I presume).

Don't VS regularly position 747-400s and A340s between LGW and LHR ... but then again that probably works out at over 100nm by the time you've taken off from LGW and entered one of the holds for LHR for 45 minutes!! And again, these have no passengers on so does it count?

[TightSlot]

One of our pilots speaks with awe and reverance of a legendary night ferry sector that entered into myth and lore amongst our happy band of travellers.

767-300 - Luton to Stansted - 6 Minutes

Does this count?

--------------------
Per Ardua Ad Ibiza

[wangi]

EDI-GLA has been mentioned already (BMI flights to CPH used to do that) however this is still done today on Air Scotland's flights from GLA to Malaga and Alicante - they go via EDI. And with a B757 the equipment is a bit bigger than the CPH jungle-jet too...

L.

[Golf Charlie Charlie]

For a short time in the late 1960s British Eagle used to fly One-Elevens from Liverpool to Manchester to Frankfurt.

I think they also flew Viscounts for a while from Liverpool to Hawarden/Chester.

Also, I recall Saudi Arabian and Gulf Air flew the Dhahran to Bahrain sector in just a few minutes before the fixed causeway from the mainland to the island was built.

Someone, maybe Southwest, used to fly from Houston Intercontinental to Houston Hobby.

[10 DME ARC]

I remember last time we had this thread, the winner I think was Oakland(OAK) to San Francisco(SFO) in a L1011. Less than 10nm as the crow flies!!!:)

[Exel]

Didn't AAL ?? used to fly MIA - FLL with Dc10's ??

Must be about 25-20nm ??

[WHBM]

19 nm MIA-FLL. But like OAK-SFO (which was the real shorty at 10 nm, the two fields being quite clearly visible from each other) these little positioning hops have disappeared from schedules.

I believe it was Continental Express that used to do Houston International to Hobby with ATRs. Used to pick up a bit of CO connecting traffic at International. The city traffic there must be bad!

The Great Circle distance between any points can be calculated for you here:

http://gc.kls2.com/

[FormerFlyer]

BGI-UVF in a VS 744?

seemed bloomin quick anyway.

cheers ;)

FF

[cognomultani]

B 734 Italy Rome area CIA to FCO .................