Originally Posted by
eye2eye5
...there have been many discussions on this forum around the need to treat the 733 sub fleet with some kindness in view of its advancing years and yet Jet2 738 s post appears to indicate higher utilisation next year. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, his post appears to be an assumption that routes have not been dropped to accommodate the new destinations. Never assume........
The post is not an assumption. Because of how similar the layout of the 737-300 is to the -800 (7 rows longer), a route originally meant to be operated by the 733 can be changed at short or long notice to a 738. For example;
using the LS197 route I mentioned earlier - from LBA-IBZ, we see that on a Saturday in July, a 737-800 is scheduled to operate the route, whereas a return on the Thursday, a 737-300 is on the route. Such alternations are relatively common from both LBA or MAN, and are designed to reflect load factors, as Djerba said. This year, on that route, there are more 738's scheduled to do it than 733's, and in the height of summer, many of the 733 allocations have been swapped do to high demand on the route by Jet2holidays.
G-JZHD makes it easier to do that, and while these 737-800s will be busier, the 737-300 that it replaces won't be, and will likely be put on standby, should anything occur elsewhere in the Jet2 network. Of course, I have only mentioned a single example, but this happens relatively often at the two most flexible bases, LBA and MAN.
