Originally Posted by
Flightrider
I think there was a fleet commonality issue for Braathens with a mix of -200s and -300s, just as there was for Britannia until they inherited the Orion aircraft with the take-over. And the early 737-300s with B1 engines were not exactly long-range aircraft which would have limited Braathens' capability to do Norway-Canaries which they did with the later HGW 737-200s. Then again, I seem to recall Orion doing LGW-Tel Aviv with a B1 737-300!!
I'm quite surprised that Braathens managed Oslo to Las Palmas with a 737-200, it's over 2,200 nm, well beyond even the quoted Gatwick to Tel Aviv of 1,900. It was for this particular route that both Spanish and Scandinavian charter carriers kept 3- and 4- engined aircraft in stock.
I was at university in Edinburgh in the early 1970s, which for historical reasons had a substantial Norwegian contingent then. Each start and end of term they chartered from Braathens for Oslo to Edinburgh. When I first was there it was a DC-6B, which for about 120 students needed to do two round trips, and took the whole day to do so. Must have been about 1974 they changed to a 737, which not only managed it in one trip, but I worked out had done an early schedule return from Oslo to Bergen and back, then the Edinburgh rounder, and then a holiday flight to Malaga. It was a notable example of how productivity improved with modern aircraft.