Wow, I knew ACA flew ETOPS Saint John's to Heathrow in the A319 but BAW A318 from JFK to LCY????

 

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/BAW2

Yeah, it is an all-business class aircraft, so it has a bit less weight, and on the return flight it refuels in Ireland before continuing, rather than going all the way, since it has to get off a short runway, so it departs from London City with less fuel. Off the longer runways it can get airborne with sufficient fuel on board, although it did have to be certified for the steeper descent angle into London City - one of only a few airliners which has been.

 

Al

I've seen this, and I was very amazed to see an A318, almost an 737-600, doing that flight.

Yeah, it is an all-business class aircraft, so it has a bit less weight, and on the return flight it refuels in Ireland before continuing,

 

Too bad they didn't go with the Boeing 737-700ER, they could have eliminated the Ireland stop on the west bound flight and probably have a little larger passenger capacity.

It's not the range capability of the aircraft that is the problem (the A318 has a 3,600 nm range), it is the MTOW limit required to be able to take off from London City with the available runway length that is the issue.

 

Thus, even if the 737-700ER could get out of the airport, which it couldn't, since it isn't certified to land there in the first place (the A318 can do that, because it has a modification which allows it to use spoilers on a 6 degree descent profile), it would still have to have a similarly small amount of fuel on board, as the A318 does upon departure, in order to be able to get airborne with the available runway length, that being only 1,508 metres. So even an ER 737 would still have to stop to refuel at Shannon before being able to make it all the way aross the Atlantic.

 

With FMC software modification, a 737-600 or 500 would probably be suitable to do it, but since the 600 has no winglets, and the 500 is an older type, the A318 was really the obvious choice. Passenger capacity is not an issue, since it is an all business class cabin, and somewhat exclusive because of that, so it's never likely to be a high capacity route.

 

Al

It's not the range capability of the aircraft that is the problem (the A318 has a 3,600 nm range), it is the MTOW limit required to be able to take off from London City with the available runway length that is the issue.

 

That's interesting, my previous understanding was it was because of the head winds on the west bound flight reducing it's range. You're right though, I forgot just how short that runway was a 737-700 wouldn't be able to get in there!!

The winds probably do also have at least some bearing on it too I should think.

 

Al

Privatair operates/operated a BBJ on some even longer routes on behalf of Lufthansa, KLM and Swiss. Houston-Amsterdam, and New York - Munich amongst others.

While the LCY-JFK flight is refuelling at Shannon Im pretty sure the pax get off and go through Immigration, That helps to reduce the amount of time wasted at JFK's immigration! So business travellers can get on with their days work in New York allot faster.

 

This flight stops over at Shannon twice a-day.

PC Pilot magazine just did an article on this flight.