Originally Posted by L Dude 7
Do they need any special certification to fly to San Juan? (Some type of overwater flying cert?)
The other question - doesn't San Juan break with their attempt to fly shorter trips? SJU is further from IAD than a western location like DEN. (though it is 500 miles shorter than LAS) I wonder if they did some research to find a pent-up demand for SJU? (I can easily see B6 with all the Puerto Ricans in NYC, but DC?)
And the other big question - will the actually survive long enough to start flying this? Or will it by like ATA's launch of service to Gary, Indiana, that, do to Ch. 11 got dropped a few days before it was supposed to start.
I would think they do need life rafts as the normal routing would take you more than 60 miles offshore. So that means overwater training for the flight crews and possible class 2 nav training for the pilots.
As far as demand goes....American flies a daily flight already from IAD and USair does a Saturday service.
UAL will begin daily nonstop service December 18 with TED. They currently have a Saturday/Sunday only mainline service triangle IAD-STT-SJU-IAD, That gets bumped up to four times a week, so two UAL flights, one Ted and one mainline, will depart from SJU-IAD within 50 minutes of each other. Both are on the 320.
DC
PS For some reason though my mind keeps thinking I heard that American is pulling their flight....or was it USAirways?