Now the logistical/physical limitations on landing/departing heavies interests me at SAN. Currently I think the largest passenger equipment are 767s (Hawaii-bound), althought Fedex/DHL may run some heavies too.

I used to live in San Diego 10 years ago and did a few LGW-PHX-SAN on 747s. I remember being startled at the large number of people leaving the flight at PHX, with maybe less than 25% of the seats filled for the short hope to SAN. We were told very strictly that we could not changes seats as it would upset the balance of the plane.

At the time I was told it was due to weight restrictions for the very reason that there is the large offset on the runway due to the immediate steep rise of the terrain and consequent relatively steep glide slope when landing from the east. See the wikipedia article on SAN for more info (not that it is guaranteed to be correct, but makes for interesting reading).

I cannot remember if I ever did a non-stop 777 from LGW-SAN, and I wonder if that took on weight penalties also? It would be fascinating to know if BA intends to fill all seats at the expense of cargo if weight limits do apply on an arriving or departing 777.

Either way, it was always entertaining listening to the captain whilst taxiing in a 747 for take off at SAN where it was (perhaps still is) necessary to cross the runway twice due to clearance issues on the south east of the field.

The flight attendants did not get to stay in SAN - they did the LGW-PHX one day, then PHX-SAN-PHX in the next day or so and then PHX-LGW a day or so later thereby never having time to see San Diego which meant that this particular route was never one of their favourites, or so I was told.

And I will never forget watching a BA 747 landing from the east at SAN - it just gets bigger and bigger and then one wonders if it'll ever be able to stop in time...