Quote:
Originally Posted by venture79
Yeah...OU Bowl charters brought in the 747-400 and DC-10 back in '04. With the existing terminal, they would likely need to be parked at the end gates, but would still take up 2 positions due to wing span. So if they are used on charters again, they'll be parked on a remote stand somewhere.
The 757 was likely thrown in here just because of the reduction of the 737 fleet by United, and it was the only available narrowbody to us. It is gone next month.
Like OUman said, small/medium cities see service on the 757 quite a bit. My favorite example has been Savannah, GA to Atlanta...Delta has had a 757 on that run for years. It use to be all 757 service on the short hop. It is all about where the yeild and passengers are...OKC still doesn't have the perfect numbers to get larger aircraft consistantly. And yeah, on the cargo side, you'll tend to see the bigger cargo hubs (except for FedEx at MEM and UPS at Louisville) at airports that don't do a lot of passenger service. Greensboro and Rockford are hubs for UPS, Wilmington being the hub for DHL, and Toledo being the hub for BAX Global who also gets 747-400F service from Emirates to Frankfurt/Dubai and Qantas to Sydney.
The seating numbers on the 737 can go up over 200 with the -900ER. The A319 up over 150 in high density seating. So they definitely aren't 120 or less aircraft.
OU...I think you are right on the 737-700ER being the longest range single isle aircraft now, except for maybe a business jet....especially the BBJ version.
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I would hardly consider louisville a pax hub, they're barely bigger than WRWA despite being in a 'desirable' business/traffic area and the ONLY large airport in their state. I also would only consider MEM a regional hub for NW, they've been reduced considerably - do they even fly large planes out of MEM (aside from a few shuttles to other NW hubs?).
As for the 737 (where you went on from my quoted pax levels), my facts were from United configurations. United doesn't have any 700ERs or 900ERs, you your post is quite suspect. Based on your post, you should realize that the 757-300 is the largest single-aisle airplane ever produced with capacity far exceeding any 737 or A319,318,320,321 config. In fact, even a 757-200 can seat well over 200 pax from an all economy type config. And those ER's on the 737's of course have extended range (hence ER), but not at the same pax/fuel ratio of the 757.
United has -300 and -500, both of whom typically fly into OKC and are the oldest of UA's single-aisle fleet.
On this fact, I was elated to see the 757-200 during the weekday schedule and the consistent A319 and A320's.
I believe what killed the 757 from production was mostly political within Boeing (I remember attending a few of the meetings in fact....) and the fact that it did it's job 'too well', being high capacity and long range where airliners were desiring a cheaper plane to do the equiv (which 737's and A320 series does quite well by comparison).
It's too bad, 757 is my most favourite single-aisle plane. A one aisler that is a Big Guy! And love the Wake Turbulence it produces.
Still OKC, get out there and see/take pics of United's 757 before it goes away (as Venture suggests.
By the way, UPS flies a 757 (752F) daily into WRWA from it's Louisville hub! Nevertheless, I hope we can somehow keep the United 757.