A nice question to Virgin Blue crew

[peanut pusher]

Just a quick question, not to offend anyone.

With Virgin looking at flying to Singapore. Has any management said how this is going to happen in a 737-700/800.
With the current configuration and cargo weight restictions, would they fly SYD/DRW/JKT/MNL into Singapore ?. Surely you can't stop for fuel 4 or 5 times!. That would make it a 20 hr trip. Can someone ask the boss and post the answer, I would love to know how they plan on doing it and what type of catering would be offered.
:D :) :confused:

[peanut pusher]

It will be a funny old journey in a single isle 737. But if it gets them in it will be ground breaking. Keep me posted if you hear anything at work.

[Wirraway]

Peanut Pusher

A 737-700 has a range of 3000nm, to give you an idea
using Broome and Darwin using great circle mapper.

BROOME
SYD-BME 1824nm 4hr 18min
MEL-BME 1675nm 3hr 57min
BNE-BME 1798nm 4hr 14min

then from Broome

BME-SIN (Singapore) 1579nm 3hr 43min
BME-HKT (Phuket) 2106nm 4hr 57min
BME-BKK (Bangkok) 2294nm 5hr 24min

DARWIN
SYD-DRW 1700nm 4hr 00min
MEL-DRW 1686nm 3hr 58min
BNE-DRW 1538nm 3hr 37min

from Darwin

DRW-SIN (S/pore) 1802nm 4hr 15min
DRW-HKT (Phuket) 2298nm 5hr 25min
DRW-BKK (B/kok) 2392nm 5hr 38min
DRW-MNL (Manila) 1711nm 4hr 02min
DRW-HKG (H/kong) 2302nm 5hr 25min

So as you can see only the one stop is needed for both
the 737-700 and 800.

To see more routes possible that I found, check out this site
that has the map and other details on great circle mapper,
as you will see here a lot of destination are non stop direct.

http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=bne-nou%2Csyd-nou%2Cmel-nou%2Cbne-dps%2Csyd-dps%2Cmel-dps%2Cbne-nan%2Cper-dps%2Csyd-nan%2Cmel-nan%2Cbne-tbu%2Csyd-tbu%2Cmel-tbu%2Cbne-akl%2Csyd-akl%2Cmel-akl%2Cbne-rar%2Cakl-rar%2Cakl-ppt%2Cbne-drw%2Csyd-drw%2Cmel-drw%2Cdrw-ror%2Cdrw-gum%2Ccns-ror%2Ccns-gum%2Cbne-ror%2Cbne-gum%2Cdrw-hkt%2Cdrw-bkk%2Cdrw-sin%2Cdrw-hkg%2Cdrw-mnl%2Cbme-sin%2Cbme-hkt%2Cbme-bkk%2Cbne-pom%2Ccns-mnl%2Ccns-pom%2Cper-sin%2Csyd-per%2Csyd-mel%2Csyd-bne%2Cmel-hba%2Clst-syd%2Cbne-cns%2Cmel-adl%2Csyd-bme%2Cmel-bme%2Cbne-bme%2Cdrw-pnh%2Cdrw-pen%2Cdrw-kul%2Cdrw-cgk%2Cdrw-sgn%2Cdrw-han%2Cbne-dil%2Cbne-vli%2Cbne-ppg%2Cbne-apw%2C%0D%0A&RANGE=&PATH-COLOR=red&PATH-UNITS=nm&SPEED-GROUND=425&SPEED-UNITS=kts&RANGE-STYLE=best&RANGE-COLOR=navy&MAP-STYLE=

NOU (Noumea) - DPS (Bali) - NAN (Nandi,Fiji) - TBU (Tonga) -
AKL (Auckland) - RAR (Raratonga, Cook Islands) -
PPT (Papette, Tahiti) - ROR (Palau, Micronesia) - GUM (Guam
Micronesia) - HKT (Phuket, Thailand) - POM (Port Moresby)-
MNL (Manila, Philippines) - HKG (Hong Kong) - SIN (Singapore) - PNH (Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
PEN (Penang, Malaysia) - KUL (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) -
CGK (Jakarta, Indonesia) - SGN (Ho Chi Minh, Saigon, Vietnam) -
HAN (Hanoi, Vietnam) - VLI (Port Vila, Vanuatu) - PPG (Pago Pago,
American Samoa) - APW (Apia, Samoa) - DIL (Dili, East Timor)

Plenty of jobs for aspiring F/As at Virgin Blue/Pacific up for grabs in 2003 me thinks,
Hope this helps, Merry Xmas

Wirraway

[Wirraway]

It will be a funny old journey in a single isle 737. But if it gets them in it will be ground breaking. Keep me posted if you hear anything at work.

Nope, not ground breaking at all, its already being done by ng737s.

Aloha Airlines
Honolulu-Raratonga 2549nm 5hrs 59min
Honolulu-Pappette 2372nm 5hrs 35min
Honolulu-Oakland (Calif) 2093nm 4hrs 56min

Air Pacific
Nandi-Honolulu 2747nm 6hrs 28min
Honolulu-Vancouver 2350nm 5hrs 32min
(this is the longest scheduled ng737 route in the world)

The 707 was not a wide body and people were flying all around
the world in them including yours truely. the 737 has exactly
the same width fuselage as the 707.

Wirraway

[peanut pusher]

Great info !!!!
I asked our planning guys a while ago about our 19 x 737-800 doing that style of flying and they canned it because all the competitors on that route would smash us with superior product ie. cabin interior, duel isle, available product. etc etc. I hope the days of 707 style of single isle comfort on flights over 5 hrs are on the way out like the 707's who were phased out in the very early 70's. I say this because pax can't find enough places to walk stretch there legs and move about on a jumbo, so we will have a hard time completing services with 20 pax at a time standing in the isle doing their DVT exercises.