Primera

[dublindispatch]

Primera are operating a 737-800 from Dublin this Winter, Dublin-St Johns-Dominican Republic on a Monday morning leaving Dublin 0800 and back Tuesday 0840. Five hours thirty each sector, one hour on the ground in St Johns, You do get a complementary meal form Dublin and a buy on board service from St Johns, Surely the whole operation depends on the weather situation in Canada as the crew are doing a crew shange in St Johns and secondly who in there rite minds is going to go on it!!!

[apaddyinuk]

Simple, the people who booked their holiday through a travel agent under the guise of "direct flights" will get on it!

[BlueTui]

OMG 737's should not go across the pond, it is difficult enough flight to say the Canaries or Egypt from the UK on these birds in that cramped cabin.

I pity the poor souls who have booked it unwittingly.

[rumair999]

something different from Ireland, good on Budget Travel for doing that !

[Rainboe]

5.30 too long in a 737....on a cheap holiday? 2 legs, fed and watered each one- chance to read and get some zzzs. What's the problem? I have been operating a shorter 737 to St. Johns, in the winter. It's a superb Canadian airport, they know how to 'do' winter over there, the hotels are good, the bars are great and the lobster terrific (for the crew). The cabin is the same width as a 757 and just a few inches narrower than an Airbus. The problem is?

[BlueTui]

I wouldn't cross the pond in a 757 either!
I live near BHX- could fly direct to EWR. Chose to go to LHR rather than fly on the 757 all the way to NYC

Although I love working on the 757 as crew, That is too far. Lack of seatback entertainment and minimal legroom on these birds(depending on operator config) are my main gripes.

[aerosexual77]

Absolute Pain!! The 737 is a short to medium haul aircraft that was never designed to do this flight(especialy in an all economy 30" layout). Primera/Budget do the decent thing and hire in a 767 from the likes of First Choice with decent leg room, IFE and non stop flights. Anyone reading this if your looking to go to Dom Rep book with a UK operator out of LGW and fly direct for the same money(Ive checked it out prices the same for better hotels!!).

[Charley B]

737 is fine, as long as operator has decent leg room--have been to Cyprus crammed in on a 757 with horrendous leg room with FCA a few years ago-never again,and to GIB with ex GB Airways on a 737 with fantastic leg room would have happily stayed on the a/c for more hours
the more room between the seats,the happier the passengers-just my opinion

[spicejetter]

I think it will be a bit of a stretch. I went SFB-GLA on a 757, expecting it to stop in Bangor, Bangor came and went, we didn't stop. Next thought - Iceland. But we didn't stop there either. So we went 9 hours, non stop, and it was a pretty long flight. Not the best.

[JulietNovemberPapa]

OMG 737's should not go across the pond, it is difficult enough flight to say the Canaries or Egypt from the UK on these birds in that cramped cabin.

Purely as the crow flies:

Dublin to St Johns = 1781 NM
Dublin to Las Palmas = 1581 NM
Dublin to Luxor = 2406 NM

So, in that context it's quite acceptable. Yes, you then have the same distance again to the Dominican Republic, but you get watered and fed...

Think about Southwest and its Providence-Las Vegas flight: 2053 NM as the crow flies aboard a 73W. In fact, Southwest has a fair number of routes above 1,500 NM.

[WHBM]

Charter 757s have been going from Europe to the Dominican Republic for some 20 years now, in fact from European points like Munich which are a lot further away than Dublin. They too stop at Bangor/Gander etc to refuel.

The 737 and the 757 fuselages are identical cross-section. If you are not an aircraft buff you would never notice a dimensional difference.

Stopping on the way also allows the aircraft to be serviced, cabin cleaned, lavs pumped out, rubbish dumped, etc.

[Invicta DC4]

What's the problem with a narrow body across the North Atlantic?

I've flown BHX-EWR on a CO 752 and it was a considerably more comfortable experience than a BA 744 LHR -ORD. Nobody seems to have complained about pre-widebody days when the choice was 707/DC8/VC10.

And I am 6ft tall with long legs!

[WATABENCH]

Agree with Invicta on that one, I flew CO 757 BRS-EWR, very comfy, crew great and seat back IFE, much nicer and a lot more convinient flying regionally than when i flew AA from LHR-JFK. A 20 min drive to BRS is a lot nicer than the 2 hrs to LHR plus the hassle of dealing with LHR.
Having said that 11 hours plus a fuel stop is a fair old treck on a little 737, but its probably cheap and thats what people want nowadays...having said that my CO BRS-EWR return ticket was only £280 inc tax and over Valentines weekend and only booked a month in advance, so can't complain there!

[Golf Charlie Charlie]

We all flew narrow bodies everywhere before there were any wide bodies.

[richardnei]

If you think CO/DL/AA/US/NW all operate the b757 across the atlantic on number of different routes as far east as Berlin, Helsinki and Hamberg.