nsx

I always thought that the two short runways on the "North Field" side of the Oakland airport were for small aircraft only. My Southwest flight landed there today. Other passengers didn't seem to notice the odd approach and landing location or the extra 5 minutes of taxiing.

I looked it up online and that runway is 6200 feet long, which is plenty. Furthermore it has been used for 737s for operations when the main runway was blocked. I guess the tower asked us to land there for some reason.

This was a first for me in over 1000 flights in and out of Oakland. Between the strange landing at OAK and some severe lateral shoves climbing out of LAX following a 777 perhaps too closely, this was one of the most worry-inducing flights I've had in long time. But it'll take a whole lot more than that to keep me from flying!

Doc Savage

Hmmm..... Is WN trying to tell you something...?

smmrfld

Had the same landing a few months ago due to the construction on 30 (formerly 29).

alggag

I had a somewhat similar experience a few years ago when we took off from runway 17 (6,000 ft and not typically used for airliners) at HOU instead of the usual 12R (7,602 ft). The thresholds of the two runways are very close together and in my mind I was hoping that it wasn't going to be a repeat of Comair 5191.

Also once did a low altitude circle to land from the 22s over to 29 at EWR, also a runway that doesn't see much airliner use.

Hayden

nsx, you are correct that the OAK North Field runways are for small aircraft only. That's largely to reduce noise for residents in the cities of Alameda and San Leandro, who are under or otherwise impacted by the approach/departure paths from North Field. In fact, when the Port of Oakland needed to work on the main runway at OAK a few years back, they got special permission from the FAA to temporarily reconfigure a taxiway adjacent to the main runway as the main runway, rather than operate flights from the North Field runways. That was due significantly to the noise issue, and secondarily, IIRC, to the challenges of going back and forth across the airport to get to the North Field.

If big jets were to regularly land or depart from North Field, I'm sure the Port would hear about it from local citizens' groups.

NextTrip

So, it was like landing at BUR!

nsx

Or like a landing at MDW. Both are fine as long as that's where you are expecting to land!

chuckworth

More like you were landing at PLK versus BKG.

djp98374

It's only a short runway when you run out of room....

lougord99

So then PLK ( taney county - Springfield, MO ) really wasn't a short runway.

returnoftheyeti

I think the Kona Shuttle leaves from those runways all the time...
http://www.kona-shuttle.com/index.cf...form&Username=

That being said, NSX, I am jealous, you got to land on the "cool kids runways".

My ultimate goal someday is to fly a commercial flight from OAK to SFO.

A friend almost got to fly SJC - SFO once ...., they diverted due to weather, and she made me come pick her up instead of flying anymore....

nsx

I flew SFO to OAK once about 25 years ago. It was a legacy carrier gathering a few more passengers for a flight to the East Coast. This was a scheduled stop, not ad hoc. The funniest part was the FA's announcement that we would be cruising at an altitude of 5000 feet, followed by a demonstration of the oxygen masks.

returnoftheyeti

I think I heard a story here, in this fourm once, where a flight scheduled from DET to MDW stopped at DTW to pick up passengers that had their DTW-MDW flight canceled.

"Uhh, Ladies and Gentleman, before we hop over the lake, we are going to cruise down I-94 to pick up some stranded passengers."

smmrfld

Western used to do an OAK-SJC-SLC run.

gooseman13

Circle to land Rwy 29 at EWR, though certainly not every day, happens on a good occasion. A few months ago we actually landed on Rwy 11 at EWR, which I could never recall happening before and I definitely thought we were landing on a highway because my visual cues were all messed up.