Originally Posted by fromYXU
Probably airport dependent rather than airline dependent.
Yeah, probably. Heck, I've used the mobile stairs at LHR, though not onto something as big as an A330 ('twas a BA A320 heading for VIE).
NW's closest non-codeshare station to me, KOA, doesn't even
have jetways. Everything, and I do mean
everything, uses the mobile stairs.
Inter-island flights (NW codeshares on HA 717s, but also AQ 732's) get the "small" stairs, but 75x's (HP, UA, AA, NW) and 76x's (DL and JO) get bigger ones. I don't know whether Mesa GO!'s CRJ's even need stairs, and I'm pretty sure Island Air's dash-8's don't.
So I'm quite accustomed to going up and down the "wheelie-stairs" to and from NW 75x's at KOA.