Originally Posted by
WHBM
The route from Lisbon to San Juan is well north of the Canaries, but passes pretty much directly over the Azores, where there are multiple airports providing trans-oceanic facilities, if you need them, as indeed they have done way back to WW2 times. It's just 2,416 nm from Santa Maria in the Azores to San Juan (only 1,961 nm transoceanic if you then route via Bermuda), and 3,184 nm from Lisbon nonstop through to Puerto Rico. The 720B was way more capable than Aer Lingus' original 720 aircraft.
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=LIS-SMA-SJU&MS=wls&DU=nm
Welcome home,
WHBM, and thank you for the excellent information posted above. I had mistakenly thought that the Azores were a bit closer to the Iberian peninsula. Thanks for the correction via the map link. Any idea whether or not Aer Lingus had to pull into Gander or Reykjavik very often when using those pure jet 720-048s on westbound flights?
Also
jlemon, regarding the airport code
BDI, that is indeed what was listed in the 1969 OAG as the airport code for Seawell International Airport in Barbados. The current Grantley Adams International Airport is indeed
BGI while
BDI is now used for the airport on Bird Island, Seychelles.