Originally Posted by Cascadia
Chatting with an AS pilot today he said that Hawaii will happen in the last half of 2006. I asked about ETOPS and he said all the equipment is ready they are just needing to train FA's, which is being done.
This Pilot is full of hot air. It can take quite some time to certify the equipment for ETOPS with the FAA and we haven't even begun that process just yet. In fact, I don't think any of our current 737-800's are ETOPS equipped at this point. They could train the F/A's tomorrow and we wouldn't be able to operate these flights for a while. To that point, we also haven't started training the F/A's. This should begin within the next few months though. The one thing that I believe he is right about is that we will begin service in the latter part of 2006, likely the fall. Keep your eyes open for any announcements - when we begin the service I believe it will be done with a special flair not seen on routes elsewhere in our system.