Howdy folks!

I recently read a post stating that the 732 Advanced could fly 5+ hour segments with a full fuel load (missions it certainly wasn't designed for or often flown, especially late in its career). Modern narrowbodies have no trouble flying such routes (as evidenced by the recent glut of 737/321/757 intercontinental flying) but it got me to thinking- what were some of the longest routes operated that really s t r e t c h e d the ranges of airplanes like the DC-9/727/A300/older 737s (and any other older shorthaulers)? Even more broadly, does anyone know what the longest turboprop flights were before the advent of the Q400? Finally, does anyone know what the longest BAe-146 or Avro RJ flights are/were?

Here are a few off the top of my head that really stretched the ranges of the airplanes involved:

CO M80 SAN-EWR
AA M80 LAX-IAD
US 722 PIT-LAX
US 722 CLT-SFO/LAX
AN 732 CHC-HBT
AN 732 PER-MEL
ON 732 INU-GUM-MNL/TPE
CO 721/2 HNL-JON-MAJ
AA A306 BOS-LHR
CP 732 YYZ-YYJ
NE 721 FLL-LAX
UA 732 MSY-SFO
WD 721 xxx-KEF-LHR
AS M80 ANC-KHV
LM D93 JFK-SXM

What else can y'all find?

Jonas

Well, the A300-600 was certainly not designed as a shorthaul aircraft, but I remember FRA-BOS flights on LH

AA operated both JFK and BOS to LHR on the A300-600 at some point in the 90s.

stylo777 wrote:

Well, the A300-600 was certainly not designed as a shorthaul aircraft, but I remember FRA-BOS flights on LH

The A300-600 had an increased range indeed, but the range of the A300B2/B4 is less than the range of an A320. It was designed for high capacity routes within Europe but failed in that purpose. It turned out planes that big needed a bigger range, so that's why the A300-600 offered exactly that.

AS did not operate the MD-80 nonstop on ANC-KHV (That would be 2930 miles, way beyond the range of any MD-80). The route was ANC-GDX-KHV.

GDX = Magadan, Russia
KHV = Khabarovsk, Russia

'902

TWA902fly wrote:

AS did not operate the MD-80 nonstop on ANC-KHV (That would be 2930 miles, way beyond the range of any MD-80). The route was ANC-GDX-KHV.

Thanks for the info! I remember reading somewhere that the M80s involved were fitted with aux tanks but it still seemed a tad long for the M80.

stylo777 wrote:

Well, the A300-600 was certainly not designed as a shorthaul aircraft

PatrickZ80 wrote:

The A300-600 had an increased range indeed, but the range of the A300B2/B4 is less than the range of an A320.

I suppose the A300-600 doesn't really count as shorthaul like the original B2/B4 model- it just struck me as odd that an A300 ever flew transatlantic (the A310 is a different story of course).

Jonas

AKL-CHT on CV (Air Chatham's) is approximately 2.5hours on an Conviar 580

LPA-CPH on a 737-200adv. Usually the flight would have a technical stop in FAO, but if direct looked possible they'd file for HAM and, once nearing, refile for CPH if the fuel still looked good. Flight usually took 05:45. CPH-LPA always had a stop in FAO.

DXB-BRU with an A300B4F, albeit with a light load (which was further decimated if loading took too long and temps kept creeping upwards). Flight was just over 6 hours.

United Airways used to do DAC-LGW with the MD-83 with a ton of fuel stops in between. About 8000 km / 4300 nm direct.

UA735WL wrote:

Howdy folks!

I recently read a post stating that the 732 Advanced could fly 5+ hour segments with a full fuel load (missions it certainly wasn't designed for or often flown, especially late in its career). Modern narrowbodies have no trouble flying such routes (as evidenced by the recent glut of 737/321/757 intercontinental flying) but it got me to thinking- what were some of the longest routes operated that really s t r e t c h e d the ranges of airplanes like the DC-9/727/A300/older 737s (and any other older shorthaulers)? Even more broadly, does anyone know what the longest turboprop flights were before the advent of the Q400? Finally, does anyone know what the longest BAe-146 or Avro RJ flights are/were?
:

For turboprops, back in the day Aeroflot used to fly the Tu-114 from Moscow to Havana with a refuelling stop in Murmansk.

As for the longest BAe-146 or Avro RJ flight, sadly probably the one that ran out of fuel killed most of the Brazilian football team that had chartered it - over 4 hours in flight.

When older JT8-powered DC-9s attempt to stretch range over water and find their destination below minimums..... https://aviation-safety.net/database/re ... 19700502-0

UA735WL wrote:

Howdy folks!

I recently read a post stating that the 732 Advanced could fly 5+ hour segments with a full fuel load (missions it certainly wasn't designed for or often flown, especially late in its career). Modern narrowbodies have no trouble flying such routes (as evidenced by the recent glut of 737/321/757 intercontinental flying) but it got me to thinking- what were some of the longest routes operated that really s t r e t c h e d the ranges of airplanes like the DC-9/727/A300/older 737s (and any other older shorthaulers)? Even more broadly, does anyone know what the longest turboprop flights were before the advent of the Q400? Finally, does anyone know what the longest BAe-146 or Avro RJ flights are/were?

Here are a few off the top of my head that really stretched the ranges of the airplanes involved:

CO M80 SAN-EWR
AA M80 LAX-IAD
US 722 PIT-LAX
US 722 CLT-SFO/LAX
AN 732 CHC-HBT
AN 732 PER-MEL
ON 732 INU-GUM-MNL/TPE
CO 721/2 HNL-JON-MAJ
AA A306 BOS-LHR
CP 732 YYZ-YYJ
NE 721 FLL-LAX
UA 732 MSY-SFO
WD 721 xxx-KEF-LHR
AS M80 ANC-KHV
LM D93 JFK-SXM

What else can y'all find?

Jonas

Damn those are some long MD80 flights you just listed. Had no idea their ranges could have been stretched like that.

Noise wrote:

Damn those are some long MD80 flights you just listed. Had no idea their ranges could have been stretched like that.

Yeah pretty looong for the Maddog! As stated by someone earlier in the thread the ANC-KHV operated with a stop in GDX but the AA and CO flights were nonstop. IIRC they were eastbound only.

B777LRF wrote:

LPA-CPH on a 737-200adv. Usually the flight would have a technical stop in FAO, but if direct looked possible they'd file for HAM and, once nearing, refile for CPH if the fuel still looked good. Flight usually took 05:45. CPH-LPA always had a stop in FAO.

Which carrier was this?


Jonas

VSMUT wrote:

United Airways used to do DAC-LGW with the MD-83 with a ton of fuel stops in between. About 8000 km / 4300 nm direct.

IIRC, there were two fuel stops with the 155-seat MD-83.

highflier92660 wrote:

When older JT8-powered DC-9s attempt to stretch range over water and find their destination below minimums...

There were several circumstances, which resulted in this ditching. The attempt of an operator to operate a DC-9 nonstop on longer flights rather seldom resulted in regular arrivals below minimums and with devastating results.

Ozark Air Lines operated DC-9-34s on long domestic flights and Aviaco operated DC-9-34RC on long fights between the Canary Island and Scandinavia. Aviaco complained about payload restrictions but I think that the manufacturer and Aviaco worked together to modify these DC-9s.

Aerolineas Argentinas operated MD-88s between Argentina and Venezuela with a stop in Bolivia.

For a short time, Alaska Airlines operated MD-83s between Los Angeles and Toronto, while Jetsgo connected Toronto with Vancouver with their 160-seat MD-83s.

Transwede operated MD-80s between Scandinavia and Florida/USA with two fuel stops. Some European MD-80-operators scheduled their aircarft on some rather long flights. Austrian Airlines is an interesting example but also Spanair (to Malabo) and charter operators who operated MD-80s on long sectors. ZAS operated rather long flights with MD-80s to European destinations while some UK- and French based MD-80-operators scheduled their aircraft for flights to Banjul, Dakar and/or Sri Lanka, India (with at least one stop) etc..

The requirement by Finnair for more range with a specific payload resulted in the MD-83. With 155 seats, the MD-83 was earmarked for flighst between Helsinki and Las Palmas. In case of too much head wind, a fuel stop was common. Air Aruba, Avianca, Aerocancun, and BWIA also operated some long flights.

Finnair operated their Caravelle-aircraft on some long flights between Helsinki and Spain/Portugal and Varig (?) operated the Caravelle between Brazil and New York with several fuel stops.

What were or are the longest flights (with passengers/payload) operated by the Fokker 100?

UA735WL wrote:

Which carrier was this?

Jonas

That would have been Maersk Air.

ConAir of Scandinavia at one point tried operating A320s between Scandinavia and Florida. That went up like a lead balloon; the taxfree purchases was moved by ship to Gander due to weight restrictions, where the aircraft would make it's 2nd stop enroute to FLL. The first stop was in KEF. They lost more money faster than a coke-filled gambler in Vegas on that venture.

B777LRF wrote:

UA735WL wrote:

Which carrier was this?

Jonas

That would have been Maersk Air.

ConAir of Scandinavia at one point tried operating A320s between Scandinavia and Florida. That went up like a lead balloon; the taxfree purchases was moved by ship to Gander due to weight restrictions, where the aircraft would make it's 2nd stop enroute to FLL. The first stop was in KEF. They lost more money faster than a coke-filled gambler in Vegas on that venture.

Speaking of Scandinavian charter airlines, the Sterling Caravelle that crashed in Dubai in 1972 was flying from Ceylon to Copenhagen. Another one had an accident i Tehran in 1974, and that one was flying from Thailand to Copenhagen.
Danish Air Transport, Alsie Express and Cimber Air have all done regular charter flights from smaller Danish airports to Italy on ATRs.
I might be wrong, but I seem to remember something about Sterling flying transatlantic with the 727.

ISB to MAN and BHX, was flown by Airblue A321 obviously a fuel stop, which was in Istanbul.

Sterling used to operate Belfast-Toronto on a Caravelle, the aircraft making a fuel stop in KEF while the passengers disembarked for a 5(!) course dinner. We used to dispatch direct BFS-MCO on Air Finland and maybe Air Scandic 757s, direct flights but the crew used to cheat with the fuel figures and weight limits..surprisingly common with charter flights years ago!

MS operates the Boeing 737-800 on Cairo-Lagos (block time of 6h5) and Mumbai-Cairo (6h45). Even with recent technological developments, these flights must count among the longest 737 flights in a standard airline (not all-business class or business jet) configuration.