Originally Posted by essexboy
A 737-700 is no cheaper to run than a 737-800.
I beg to differ. I don't have up-to-date detailed numbers to hand but here's a US starting point:
This is from a
Unisys report which is a few years old but which gives a rough idea. Of course fuel costs, landing fees etc will have changed, but not the fact that there's a difference in operating costs (on a plane-mile basis) between the -700 and -800. You can see from the chart above that for the airlines flying both -700s and -800s (e.g. Continental, Alaska) there's an appreciable difference.
C.