[Tom Otley]

Interesting piece on Bloomberg

Your Next Trans-Atlantic Trip May Be on Boeing’s Humble 737

On new narrow body aircraft and the options they will give airlines for new routes.

…. With regards to the A321LR

“JetBlue and TAP also plan to deploy the model, which is due to be available from 2019. The U.S. carrier has agreed to buy 30 A321neos with an option to take some as LR variants, saying it wants an aircraft with “trans-Atlantic range.” TAP has orders for 10 A321neoLRs, saying it could use them to serve Brazil and possibly the U.S. Its Lisbon base is about 3,500 miles from both New York and Recife, the South American country’s sixth-largest city.

Ireland’s Aer Lingus is also a likely operator of the A321neoLR across the Atlantic, Willie Walsh, CEO of parent company IAG SA, said in July, adding that the jet represents a “fantastic opportunity.” It already flies 757s to locations including Hartford, Connecticut, typical of the cities smaller planes could serve.”

We covered some of this last year in Alex McWhirter’s piece

Narrow-body long-haul: Ocean of choice

[MartynSinclair]

“eight hours on a 130-foot plane with three toilets and one gangway” – err no thanks..

.. unless of course the number worked for a all business version, similar to the LCY-JFK (318’s)…

[TominScotland]

Martyn

Dublin to the East Coast is hardly 8 hours and probably as little as 5.5 on the return but point taken. I loved the LCY – JFK run.

[MartynSinclair]

The article stated there would be 8 hour sectors. Think there will be other routes for other airlines using twin jet single aisle aircraft..to other European destinations..

[SimonS1]

I did 7 hours Frankfurt to Accra about 2 years back on one of the 737s that they had operated by Privatair and it was very comfortable. Much better than the 10 abreast 777s or the 787s.

[openfly]

…..28″ seat pitch for 8 hours! 30″ if you are lucky in business class.

I had the misfortune to fly on Vueling recently. I’m 6′ tall…no way I could get my legs into the seat area. Fortunately I had an aisle seat, but was tripping the crew up…they seemed used to it. Never again.

[FDOS_UK]

I’ve done a few long hauls in smaller aircraft, with varied results (all flights below were 6.5 hours or more)

– Boeing BBJ2 (738) – Privatair, business, standard LH angled seat – okay
– Boeing 737-900 – Turkish, business, with 2×2 deep recliners – okay
– Airbus A320 – Austrian, business, with 2×2 deep recliners – okay
– Airbus 320 – JetBlue, economy (but first row, extra legroom) – awful

None of the above were better than ‘okay’ due to the seats, the Privatair could have been with proper flat beds.

I’d always take a widebody, if available.

[Tom Otley]

More on Norwegian plans for narrow body flights across the Atlantic

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/budget-airline-to-offer-200-transatlantic-flights-wrhhvh2dq

“Flights from Manchester and Edinburgh to America will be available for as little as £200 return next year when Norwegian Airlines becomes the European launch airline of the 189-seater Boeing 737Max.”

[LuganoPirate]

I also prefer a widebody having flown on the 737 of PrivatAir all business class operated for Swiss zrh – ewr. Everything was fine, with very friendly crew, totally flat seat, though it felt like I was sleeping on the floor, with bags of leg room – I was in the front row. However the bathroom was very small and uncomfortable to use.

[LuganoPirate]

Sorry, can no longer seem to edit.

I wanted to add, being on a 189 seater all economy sounds awful. At £200 return (+extras no doubt?) I’m sure many will book as they did with Laker, but at least that was a DC10!

[MrMichael]

Not sure I am bothered about the size of the plane. I only take up around 2sq meters personally, provided I can get up and down the aisle to a toilet the rest of the plane is wasted on me. In fact if the rest was not there it would likely be a very pleasurable experience. The important factor for me is price = x Comfort (seat width, legroom etc) = y. So provided they meet somewhere then I am happy, irrelevant of whether narrowbody or widebody. Of course the advantage of narrowbody is faster boarding and getting away quicker. The downside is going to be the issue of hand baggage.

[superchris]

I would take it over a 10 abreast 777 everyday of the week!

[Ahmad]

Is it only me or are wide-body planes quiter and smoother than the smaller single aisle Boeings and Airbuses. Haven’t flown a 757 for quite sometime now so can’t compare.

I haven’t flown long haul in the E70 but have noticed that the noise level in not as high.

[GivingupBA]

Ahmad said “Is it only me or are wide-body planes quiter and smoother than the smaller single aisle Boeings and Airbuses….”.

I have always found that to be true – the larger the plane, the quieter and smoother.

[Author]

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