I saw that 757 a couple days ago right as it was taking off

Yea its huge

Yep, it's good to see OKC being upgraded to a 757 by one of the majors, this is the second time UAL has had 757 service between DEN and OKC. Perhaps more significant in this is that the 757 is being operated to/from OKC during the "slow" period for air travel during the day, when typically many airports like OKC have RJs instead of mainliners.

Will Rogers can and has handled aircraft upto the 747-400 (actually Northwest flew in a DC 10-30 and a 744 back in December '04 IIRC). But yeah, the terminal can only handle aircraft upto the 767 maybe, I can't see a 747 docking at the terminal without occupying neighbouring gate ramp space.

Not to be picky or anything, but cities like Austin and Reno have had daily 757 service long before we had. It's not uncommon for large jets and widebodies to be seen at airports like Greenville-Spartanburg, which handles a Lufthansa Cargo MD 11.

Both the 737 and 319 can have a higher density configuration especially with a one-class layout like Southwest's (137 seats). Also, correct me if I'm wrong on this but I think the 737-700ER is now the world's longest-range single-aisle airplane. The 73G (as it's abbreviated) is now my favourite 737 variant.

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.

^Yeah it is likely that the 75' isn't filling up, although most flights to/from OKC are pretty full during the summer season, but next month with the drop-off in passenger numbers it will be replaced. Still though, with the conditions the industry is in getting a 757 at all for an airport like OKC is pretty good. You're right about the BBJ being the longest-range narrowbody jet, Boeing also has the BBJ2 but that's based on the 737-800 airframe.

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.

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Oklahoma City, RENAISSANCE CITY!

^To add to that Fedex upgraded its OKC ops to a couple widebody 310Fs/300Fs as well last year (replacing three daily 722Fs), I actually snapped a shot of it on the cargo ramp on the east side of the field the other day while heading down to AUS. I have a feeling though that they'll be downgraded to 75s as well once more 752BCFs (Boeing Converted Freighters) come into the fleet, like UPS has now at OKC.

United has been flying the 319s and 320s on a regular basis the past few years, with an Explus CR7 or EMB 170 thrown in by United Express.

>>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?).<<

MEM has actually held its own. I believe they still do a A330 to AMS from there, either NW or KLM - depends on the time of year who runs it.

>>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.<<

Well aware that the 757-300 is the largest modern single aisle aircraft. Flew on them several times with ATA when they still had their MDW hub. The 757-200 normally flies with about 210 or so pax in an all tourist layout. Don't worry, I'm well familiar with the vast majority of layouts and aircraft out there - no need to school me.

>>United has -300 and -500, both of whom typically fly into OKC and are the oldest of UA's single-aisle fleet.<<

All of which will be gone by 2009.

>>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).<<

The problem with the 757 is that it didn't have a well marketed family. It was designed as a replacement to the 727, and it did that well. The problem is the lower end of the seating range is able to be handled by the 737 family. Heck even the 737-900ER can easily be used to replace 757-200s now. The upper end meant that the 757 would be overlapping the 767 family. Two different product lines, but demand wasn't there for the late coming -300. Now the ever delayed 787 will replace the 767 and 757-300 niche for Boeing. It just didn't have anywhere to go and was an odd ball, but a great aircraft. Much like the MD-95/717-200. Great little plane, but a family wasn't developed or proposed to late to where the project was killed. Of course Boeing wouldn't dare let a former MDD product move into its 737 territory, which the 717-300 was going to do.

I just hope we can keep Frontier to DEN as Tulsa lost their service. I like having either the United or Frontier option when flying to Colorado. I'll be using Frontier next month and I worry about it.

You're right about the MD-95. We killed it, just like we did the MD-11.

Im not even sure why we gave it a Boeing designation (717) other than to create unity in the company. We didn't give the MD-11 any boeing designation though, so Im not so sure it was a good idea to "lose" a 7X7 designation, since now we only have one left (797).

I wasn't trying to 'school' you on aircraft, obviously you can hold your own. I was only correcting what you were correcting about my posts. I was posting United's configurations yet you were making general observations (that 737's can seat more than 120, etc).

Again, I was posting United configs and therefore the significance of getting a 757 from them.

I work for Boeing in finance, and have been with Boeing since 1998 - so I am very well aware of aviation and airlines as well - esp from the MFG side of it.

I do agree with you that the 757 didn't have a strong family, but that was mainly because it's 'family' was the 767 - 757 and 767 were fraternal twins, the 67 being the larger brother; as both planes had similar layout from an airline prospective - including the same cockpit and feet.

of course, 767 is larger, twin aisle, and was marketed to be a high capacity TransAtlantic carrier while the 757 was marketed to be a high capacity domestic hauler.

Engines is what separated the two though, as the 757 produced the same or greater wake turbulence despite being quite a bit smaller aircraft.

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Oklahoma City, RENAISSANCE CITY!

Frontier is likely going to fold entirely before too long. But Southwest is now flying from both OKC and Tulsa to Denver.

American has had a daily 757 to Tulsa from Dallas for years, but it's there to a large extent to move planes to and from the airbase. They unveiled a 757 with the Race for the Cure ribbon painted down the side here yesterday as a matter of fact.

Tulsa World: Jets go pink to aid Komen

Frontier is holding tight. They secured DIP financing, they got their credit card processing issue fixed (which forced them into Chapter 11). The biggest hurdle now is how to address Southwest wanting to come in and kill them off. I don't see Southwest doing to them what they did to ATA. Frontier has a strong product, a great following in Denver, and has really corrected some dumb decisions made in the past.

Of course people can say Frontier is going to die. A report was put out today that United is better off folder and liquidating than continue their rebuilding. Then you have people that said USAir would be gone...I think there was a story a week from the early 90s through last year...and still are.

Southwest will be eliminating one of the 3 daily flights to Phoenix from OKC starting this fall. This will take the airline down to 2 daily flights. The market overall will fall from a high of 5 daily flights currently down to 2 once US Airways pulls out as well.

The early morning flight was replaced by a "direct" flight with 2 stops en route.

Swake, Im not surprised that AA flies 757's to Tulsa, since it is their maintenance center. Just like Im not surprised to see Alaska Airline's planes in OKC even though they don't provide pax service to OKC.

But for United to fly 757 to OKC, that's saying something. United already has quite a number of daily flights between Den and OKC, for one of them to be in a 757 that's saying something, since OKC is not a mtc base or focus city for UAL.

Tulsa is a American Airlines corporate city, OKC is not one for United (but it is the largest ops in the state), hence the 757?.

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Oklahoma City, RENAISSANCE CITY!

Frankly, I am getting a little irritated at the airlines and/or airport management. Year over year OKC is STILL showing gains in passenger traffic, yet the airlines continue to cut back. I hope that airport management is not sitting back and letting it happen. Are they showing the airlines how good things are in OKC? Maybe the airlines are just assuming things are bad here like the rest of the country?

This has nothing to do with the airport, all it can do for now is try as best as it can to keep the service it has right now. If you've seen the news, you'll know that even with the falling price of crude oil, jet fuel's price isn't falling as much, and so the airlines are still going to cut back whereever they see unprofitable service.

Airports all over the U.S. are seeing cut backs/eliminations, it's not just OKC. Heck, LAX is getting whacked right now, DL and UA are both eliminating around 20-25% of their daily schedule at LAX, and international carriers are also either cutting back sharply or eliminating service altogether. For LAX, the cuts are significant.

San Jose Airport has lost all but one of its transnational flights. That's gotta be bad especially for Silicon Valley business travelers. Overall, OKC's in pretty good shape for now.

I suspect that if crude oil prices continue to fall though, then slowly you'll see jet fuel's price start falling more as well, and airlines may start adding flights back.

The cut backs are going to happen as airlines try to raise load factors and increase fares. Easiest way to increase fares, cut available capacity.

Southwest is expected to actually post its first overall loss next quarter...first time ever for them. Lately they have been able to avoid this by balancing their operational (airline) losses with the profit made by their Oil Hedging Business fund/arm. Things will continue like this for awhile...at least until passengers are able to pay more to fly. I would also expect any long nonstop flights to be under the gun from OKC...especially from Southwest. So PHX, already 1 cut, and next may be LAS and BWI.

Which may be a while given the inflation we're projected to experience in the next couple of years based on the Fed's rate cuts.

BWI flights I can see being dropped. I don't think WN will drop the only-remaining between here and LAS. Vegas is still a good destination for us and last I heard that flight is doing quite well.

I'll need to check, but I think BWI is higher yeilding than LAS...and would be the logical first cut.

Look at the way airlines are dumping nonstop from LAS and a lot of Florida cities in markets that people through would be strong, and are load wise - just not yeild wise.

There are announcements off/on here in Austin about losing direct service connections as well. I wish JetBlue would pick up OKC, we fly them direct from Austin to Boston and JFK and it is great....except for the two hour delay out of JFK last Wednesday night but every other airline was running the same type of delays at both JFK, LaGuardia and Logan that night. If we were to move to Boston a direct flight home to see the family in OKC would be very nice.

Yeah...JetBlue and AirTran would be the two I would want to see in OKC. Alaska a close third.

I flew out of OKC yesterday afternoon and saw a Northwest Airlines 747 parked east of the terminal near the cargo planes. Anyone have an idea what it was doing here? Could it have been a college football charter plane for the OU game or maintenance?

charter, for Nebraska I bet

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Oklahoma City, RENAISSANCE CITY!

I saw it sitting on the tarmac Friday afternoon (closer to the passenger terminal) and was wondering the same thing. Didn't see anything on the news about it, so I'm guessing it wasn't a critical situation.

Nebraska charter. Northwest has had that contract for years...Nebraska has money.