Airbus A318/319/320/321 and Boeing 737 ETOPS on North Atlantic

[Porrohman]

With 757 production having ended and the fleet getting older, how many airlines have started flying /plan to start flying ETOPS A318/319/320/321 or Boeing 737 variants on North Atlantic routes?

I'm aware that BA plan to start a trans-atlantic A318 service from LCY, and GSM sometimes use a B738 to SFB and YHM in the low season (with a fuel stop). Are there any others?

How suitable are these aircraft for trans-atlantic flights from an economic perspective?

[Porrohman]

Given the absence of replies, I presume that there are no other trans-Atlantic 737 or A318/19/20/21 operations at present?

Boeing and Airbus are offering extended range versions of these families of aircraft (e.g. 737-700ER with 5,375nm range and A319 with 3,900nm range) but airlines don't seem terribly interestd in using these aircraft on trans-atlantic flights yet.

I'd have thought that routes such as EDI-IAH, EDI-DXB, BRG-IAH, BRG-DXB and the likes could be tried out with one of these aircraft, then upgraded to larger types if successful? There must be a great many city pairs that could be tried out in this way and it must surely be far less risky to do this than launching such routes with larger aircraft.

Are the operating economics of these types on extended range operations not particularly attractive to the airlines? Would passengers be reluctant to fly such small aircraft on such long routes? Or are there other reasons why these smaller narrow-bodies are rarely used on trans-Atlantic flights?

[eastern wiseguy]

I stand to be corrected BUT I seem to recall something about Air Canada using some sort of minibus between Halifax and LHR.......

[Notso Fantastic]

Astraeus were running a 737-700 on 6 hour flights from Gatwick to 2 airports in Newfoundland up to last year. Quite satisfactory operation-wise, and had the potential to go quite a lot further.

The main problems are commercial. The local big carrier will match your service and undercut with equivalent equipment until you don't find it economical to compete any longer, whereupon they will then cancel their competing operation and do as they wanted- feed that revenue into larger hubs where a large B767/777 operation can consolidate traffic. Any new operations with small aircraft will be squeezed out either side of the Atlantic this way by the big boys. The only such operation with small ETOPs aircraft that seems remotely viable is to specialise the service- all business class for example, IF the market on that route will support it. Sadly Silverjet found the niche a bit too small.

[Liffy 1M]

I stand to be corrected BUT I seem to recall something about Air Canada using some sort of minibus between Halifax and LHR.......

Yes, AC did operate such a service in summer 2007 but discontinued it after some months.

[philbky]

Last year Air Canada ran A319s between Halifax and Heathrow twice a week with a mid evening arrival at LHR and a late evening departure. It was a summer only service and it seems it won't be repeated this year.

Swiss Air Lines and Lufthansa operate B737 in full business class mode across the pond - HB-IIQ (737-700) operates the DLH484 and HB-IIR (737-800) operates the SWR 18, both operated by Privat Jet.

Daimler Chrysler operated a weekday return service for their employees to Detroit using a Privat Jet A319.

Miami Air have frequently used 737-800 s on trooping flights from the US to Iraq and Afghanistan and have recently been joined by Continental 737-800s.

Astraeus have been mentioned and FlyGlobespan regularly had to sub a 737-800 to Halifax last summer from the UK and Ireland.

[saman]

And Privatair have a couple of A319 Long Range fitted with 42 or so seats that Lufthansa use on trans-atlantic services. They have been used on, for example, Dusseldorf to Chicago until recently but I understand that DUS-ORD is now a sufficiently well deveolped route that an A340 will take/has taken over and that the A319s will be deployed on other Trans-At routes.

Also don't forget that BA have announced their LCY to NYC route with two A318s. A stop on the LCY-NYC leg but non-stop from NYC to LCY. A special market niche filled by a special aircraft that has real commonality - Flight crews, maintenance, ops, spares - with the rest of the BA A320 Family fleet. That makes the difference in the economics of the whole operation.