Oh Boy...... Perhaps Hawaii is not too far off!
(Excerpt from Airliners.net )
No link to post since this is courtesy of the company's employee newspaper (print version only so far), but here's an excerpt from one of the recent articles:
This week, the (Flight Operations) division notified the FAA that it plans to begin the certification process for Extended Twin-Engine Operations (ETOPS) for a portion of its 737-800 fleet.
"Without life vests or rafts, our aircraft must stay within 50 nautical miles of land," said Scott Ridge, managing director of technical operations and support.
"Along with equipping our -800s with life rafts, ETOPS will give us the ability to fly the most direct over-water routes to Cancun, saving time and money. And it will allow us to apply for additional markets to Cancun under a new bilateral agreement between the United States and Mexico."
Ridge said, "Although there has been no decision on any new markets, we have decided to move forward with the ETOPS process for our 737-800s. This will eliminate the time and expense of retrofitting existing aircraft in the future, putting us in a position to take advantage of potential new opportunities to destinations like Hawaii."
