I can't remember the last time such a large plane was flown on such a short route, but I am almost certain that this is currently the only 77W to be flown intrastate, and the shortest 77W route with any US airline, at under an hour!

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N23 ... /KLAX/KSFO

UA2555 is a positioning flight.

Auchmithie wrote:

UA2555 is a positioning flight.

Interesting, how do you know this?

There are literally hundreds of widebody flights per day with ~1 hour duration. MIA-MCO, HND-ITM, SYD-MEL, et al. and that does not even begin to include UPS, FedEx, etc. with examples such as OAK-ONT on the MD-11.

FoxtrotSierra wrote:

Auchmithie wrote:

UA2555 is a positioning flight.

Interesting, how do you know this?

Because UA positioning/charter flights are all 2xxx. In addition, on UA website, it listed the flight scheduled to depart at 3.10AM, good luck finding passengers to pay and fly at that hour.

This is not unheard of. Definitely a positioning flight. Happens with all the majors. DL has a daily 77L flight from ATL-LAX which serves as a positioning flight but at the same time accepts passengers. Though where is the ATL 77L coming from? JNB?

The flight is obviously going to be operating to AKL which is starting. It was weird UA website this flight was 3 hours late.

KICT wrote:

There are literally hundreds of widebody flights per day with ~1 hour duration. MIA-MCO, HND-ITM, SYD-MEL, et al. and that does not even begin to include UPS, FedEx, etc. with examples such as OAK-ONT on the MD-11.

Yes, but I was referring specifically to the 77W and within the US. Unless I am mistaken, this would be the shortest.

notconcerned wrote:

FoxtrotSierra wrote:

Auchmithie wrote:

UA2555 is a positioning flight.

Interesting, how do you know this?

Because UA positioning/charter flights are all 2xxx. In addition, on UA website, it listed the flight scheduled to depart at 3.10AM, good luck finding passengers to pay and fly at that hour.

FlightAware states it departed 6:30AM, can't find a better time than that!

FoxtrotSierra wrote:

KICT wrote:

There are literally hundreds of widebody flights per day with ~1 hour duration. MIA-MCO, HND-ITM, SYD-MEL, et al. and that does not even begin to include UPS, FedEx, etc. with examples such as OAK-ONT on the MD-11.

Yes, but I was referring specifically to the 77W and within the US. Unless I am mistaken, this would be the shortest.

The shortest in the US, yes. Most likely. Definitely not the shortest 77W flight in the world. I fly to Jakarta from Singapore weekly which is a 1h20m flight on a mix of 77W, 773A, A350, and A330.

Coal wrote:

FoxtrotSierra wrote:

KICT wrote:

There are literally hundreds of widebody flights per day with ~1 hour duration. MIA-MCO, HND-ITM, SYD-MEL, et al. and that does not even begin to include UPS, FedEx, etc. with examples such as OAK-ONT on the MD-11.

Yes, but I was referring specifically to the 77W and within the US. Unless I am mistaken, this would be the shortest.

The shortest in the US, yes. Most likely. Definitely not the shortest 77W flight in the world. I fly to Jakarta from Singapore weekly which is a 1h20m flight on a mix of 77W, 773A, A350, and A330.

LAX-SFO is 56 min, so it actually is shorter, but whether or not it is the shortest outside of the US is another story.

FoxtrotSierra wrote:

KICT wrote:

There are literally hundreds of widebody flights per day with ~1 hour duration. MIA-MCO, HND-ITM, SYD-MEL, et al. and that does not even begin to include UPS, FedEx, etc. with examples such as OAK-ONT on the MD-11.

Yes, but I was referring specifically to the 77W and within the US. Unless I am mistaken, this would be the shortest.

So as only AA & UA fly the 77W it's easy to create a new category for shortest 77W flight vs shortest 777 flight. When you create a sub category you can sell say the most 1/4 pound burgers with hoisin sauce as well. Still does not make it the most selling 1/4 pound burger!

klwright69 wrote:

The flight is obviously going to be operating to AKL which is starting. It was weird UA website this flight was 3 hours late.

Reposition flights routinely operate late for multiple reasons. When I worked for UA I would say repositions would be late maybe 30% of the time. And at 3am, its not a time sensitive flight, so doesn't really matter.

Sunday night UA sent two 777W to Houston to fly the Astros and Dodgers to LA for the World Series, and this was one of them ferrying back SFO.

notconcerned wrote:

FoxtrotSierra wrote:

Auchmithie wrote:

UA2555 is a positioning flight.

Interesting, how do you know this?

Because UA positioning/charter flights are all 2xxx. In addition, on UA website, it listed the flight scheduled to depart at 3.10AM, good luck finding passengers to pay and fly at that hour.

Revenue flight numbers are creeping into the 2000-2200 blocks. By the way.

The aircraft originally left IAH at 3:20am Monday morning. Most likely with the Dodgers.

No different than the hundreds of times UA has flown the 744 between LAX and SFO over the years.

Positioning flights happen all the time.

KICT wrote:

There are literally hundreds of widebody flights per day with ~1 hour duration. MIA-MCO, HND-ITM, SYD-MEL, et al. and that does not even begin to include UPS, FedEx, etc. with examples such as OAK-ONT on the MD-11.

FEDEX has a LAX-SNA and LAX-BUR on a A300

Same in the YUL-YYZ corridor with Air Canada and Air Transat. I actually got on one of them last year. Was waiting for a Rouge B767-300 from YUL to MCO. Sitting at the gate 30 minutes before our scheduled departure and it came taxiing in. I figured by the time they offload,remove luggage,clean,re-load, etc we would be about 30 minutes late. But surprise, it was re-positioning from YYZ and was already empty and clean. Repositioning flight in from YYZ was 56 minutes.

Air Canada flies multiple daily flights between YYZ-YUL using WB a/c such as the 77W, 77L, 333 and 763. In the past, they also flew the L1011, 741/742/744 and A340.
These are known as RapidAir flights and are great for commuters/business people flying between YYZ and YUL. Once the aircraft is in either YYZ or YUL, they usually continue on to long haul destinations.
Flying time between these two cities is around 1hr and the loads are generally heavy whether it's a wide body or narrow body a/c.

FoxtrotSierra wrote:

Coal wrote:

FoxtrotSierra wrote:

Yes, but I was referring specifically to the 77W and within the US. Unless I am mistaken, this would be the shortest.

The shortest in the US, yes. Most likely. Definitely not the shortest 77W flight in the world. I fly to Jakarta from Singapore weekly which is a 1h20m flight on a mix of 77W, 773A, A350, and A330.

LAX-SFO is 56 min, so it actually is shorter, but whether or not it is the shortest outside of the US is another story.

GMP-CJU occasionally sees the 747 and 777 - a route that's about 40 minutes flying time and 220 statutory miles.

UA scheduled a 747 on the LAX-SFO route occasionally in the 1970s and 1980s. Of course PSA scheduled the L-1011 on the same route for a short time in 1974.

Not the first time a large wide-body was even scheduled on such a short route, and that doesn't count numerous tag-on flights back in those days.

I had a short flight a year or two ago on a 767-300ER. It was from Kona to HNL. It that about 120 miles? Hawaiian had cancelled a couple morning flights scheduled to use the 717. I arrived for my flight around noon and there were many disgruntled folks milling around. But my flight was scheduled on time. Then the 767 arrived and picked us all up. The plane looked pretty full to me. I think it was 3 flights worth of passengers.

The Dodgers flew IAH-LAX early Monday morning with a pair of B77W's (UAL2501 and 2502). The Astros left IAH Monday afternoon on a B764 (UAL2500)..

IAHFLYR wrote:

The Dodgers flew IAH-LAX early Monday morning with a pair of B77W's (UAL2501 and 2502). The Astros left IAH Monday afternoon on a B764 (UAL2500)..

Why would the Dodgers need two 77Ws vs a single 764 for the Astros? That seems like way more than enough to handle the entire team, management, and families.

len90 wrote:

IAHFLYR wrote:

The Dodgers flew IAH-LAX early Monday morning with a pair of B77W's (UAL2501 and 2502). The Astros left IAH Monday afternoon on a B764 (UAL2500)..

Why would the Dodgers need two 77Ws vs a single 764 for the Astros? That seems like way more than enough to handle the entire team, management, and families.

I guess it's up to the Astros management as to who will be invited in the travelling party. When the Saints went to Super Bowl they took their normal DL 763 by themselves like they always did. Now coming back was a different story!

Sent from my SM-N920T using Tapatalk

fraspotter wrote:

This is not unheard of. Definitely a positioning flight. Happens with all the majors. DL has a daily 77L flight from ATL-LAX which serves as a positioning flight but at the same time accepts passengers. Though where is the ATL 77L coming from? JNB?

I typically have crack-of-dawn departures out of my home airport when I am going to work in LAX so that I can take the 77L flight, which departs at 9, arrives at 11. I was on it last week. 708 has been running JNB-ATL and back. The other 9 birds have been running LAX-PVG, LAX-SYD, DTW-PVG, and ATL-NRT. Usually it turns back to LAX or heads to NRT. Interestingly, they are running the 77E on ATL-ICN. 867 has been runnning charters (77E).

notconcerned wrote:

FoxtrotSierra wrote:

Auchmithie wrote:

UA2555 is a positioning flight.

Interesting, how do you know this?

Because UA positioning/charter flights are all 2xxx. In addition, on UA website, it listed the flight scheduled to depart at 3.10AM, good luck finding passengers to pay and fly at that hour.

I remember the old days when a flight number starting 2xxx was a Ted flight. Maybe even in the 25xx series?

DL used to run repositioning flights on a 777 with paying pax on CVG-ATL, which is just shorter than SFO-LAX.

Also, DHL's CVG-ORD on the 744 at 40-50 min has to be one of the shortest flights with the largest aircraft in the US.

len90 wrote:

IAHFLYR wrote:

The Dodgers flew IAH-LAX early Monday morning with a pair of B77W's (UAL2501 and 2502). The Astros left IAH Monday afternoon on a B764 (UAL2500)..

Why would the Dodgers need two 77Ws vs a single 764 for the Astros? That seems like way more than enough to handle the entire team, management, and families.

Also for comparison...when the Cubs came back from Cleveland after Game 7 of last year's World Series, they had a 747-400, with mgmt/staff and friends/family split between (2) 767-400's. So that was a total of 850+ seats on 3 widebodies and only about 470 seats occupied. Guessing nobody in middle seats even for the short hop. When Cleveland came to Chicago for the middle 3 games, they also had multiple widebody aircraft. 2017 will be the 3rd consecutive season that the World Series Champion charters on United Airlines as the Royals do/did in '15.

why is it the 77W and not the 773?

ripcordd wrote:

why is it the 77W and not the 773?

773=777-300
77W=777-300ER

Interesting. During peak season KLM flies the 77W Quito-Guayaquil before continuing to Amsterdam. This flight usually is 30 minutes wheels up to touchdown. The rest of the year is operated daily by the 772. Iberia would fly the same route with the A346 until a few months ago.

AA300B wrote:

Interesting. During peak season KLM flies the 77W Quito-Guayaquil before continuing to Amsterdam. This flight usually is 30 minutes wheels up to touchdown. The rest of the year is operated daily by the 772. Iberia would fly the same route with the A346 until a few months ago.

Those are tag-on or round robin flights, not like KLM is scheduling just for the purpose of Quito-Guayaquil. But yes it is interesting to see those short segments on a 77W.

Back in the day you could fly the likes of a 747 SAN-LAX or an L-1011 SEA-PDX or DC-10 SEA-GEG.

Another very short 77W flight is IST-ADB with TK, which runs a few times a day actually (up to 4 or 5 daily depending on demand)! I did it a couple times, about 35 minutes in the air.

AC_B777 wrote:

Air Canada flies multiple daily flights between YYZ-YUL using WB a/c such as the 77W, 77L, 333 and 763. In the past, they also flew the L1011, 741/742/744 and A340.
These are known as RapidAir flights and are great for commuters/business people flying between YYZ and YUL. Once the aircraft is in either YYZ or YUL, they usually continue on to long haul destinations.
Flying time between these two cities is around 1hr and the loads are generally heavy whether it's a wide body or narrow body a/c.

Don’t forget AC’s other Rapidair route YYZ-YOW is even shorter and sees at least 1 763 per day on it. 777 & 787 upgauges or subs when a flight is cxx happen often enough too.

[photoid][/photoid]

socalatc wrote:

KICT wrote:

There are literally hundreds of widebody flights per day with ~1 hour duration. MIA-MCO, HND-ITM, SYD-MEL, et al. and that does not even begin to include UPS, FedEx, etc. with examples such as OAK-ONT on the MD-11.

FEDEX has a LAX-SNA and LAX-BUR on a A300

The poster specifically said the shortest 77W in the US. There are plenty of examples of short WB flights in the US and elsewhere. HNL-LIH, HNL-OGG, OGG-KOA. When UA operated OGG-KOA as a triangle the flying time could be as short as 10 minutes in a 772.

77H

springtx wrote:

Sunday night UA sent two 777W to Houston to fly the Astros and Dodgers to LA for the World Series, and this was one of them ferrying back SFO.

Both 777-300’s were for the Dodgers. One for players, coaches and player family. The other for other staff and guests. The Astros flew a 767-400

socalatc wrote:

The Astros flew a 767-400

Bringing the trophy home!

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL2 ... /KLAX/KIAH

There was a time, back in the day when UA scheduled a daily DC-10 between ORD and MKE. It was a tag on for a west coast flight. You hardly got off the ground before you were in the approach pattern.

There are no less than four 747's that operate every single night LAX-SFO (tag-on). Very regular, and very noisy.

http://flightaware.com/live/findflight? ... ation=KSFO

Interestingly, there are no southbound 747's....