Mikey

What a pity. This could easily be a 737. Oh well.

This used to be a jet route (unless I am thinking of another airline). Why is AS expanding the use of the Q400s?

ANC

fuel economy

prismwiz

It is a jet route. Just not on AS


Any problems with flying a WN 737?

eastwest

AS has stated that yields are not high enough in this market with these fuel prices to profitably fly a 737 on this route. Thus, the switch to the Q400.

In plain English: There aren't enough butts in seats, paying a high enough fare to continue flying a jet.

Steph3n

No problem with Q400's I'd get used to it the turboprop or open fanjet are going to be in for the next 50 years.

terrier

I actually like the Q400 on this route, at least when the weather's nice. Great views all the way up, plus the trademark QX free beer.

MileageAddict

SEA-RNO = 563 miles. Long flight in a prop. What is the longest Dash flight offered by QX?

tusphotog

I don't know if they still run it, but I remember seeing them do SJC-PDX which is 569 miles. I can't imagine they'll run the Q400s on the PDX-LAX route. A 2:30 flight on a prop doesn't sound like fun. Regardless of the free beer...

Seat 7D

I think this is the new winner! Previous candidates included BOI-SJC at 523 and LAX-RDD at 501.

According to Bombardier, although the Q400 has a range of over 1300 nautical miles, it's really designed to compete against regional jets and small airliners on routes of less than 400 miles. It loses some of it's edge on routes over that becuase it's in the air burning fuel longer than a jet would be on a route of that length. Clearly, Alaska has run the numbers and this is the best choice on the route in terms of economics.

Passenger comfort is harder to quantify. The Q400 is the best turboprop I have ever been on in terms of headroom, noise level and seat comfort (I can still remember being rattled around on a Shorts 360 years ago). Sometimes the "A la Cart" system beats fighting for overhead bin space. But it's still a turboprop, and it works best (from a comfort standpoint) on flights of 60 minutes or less.

Altaflyer

YEG-SEA, currently a CR7 route was DH4 for a while recently and I just hope they have a better solution if they get ride of CR7s since 559 miles takes a fair bit longer in a prop.

isherwood

Does anyone have any idea what will happen to the current QX PDX-Southern California flights when the RJ's are gone? Back to AS I hope.

eastwest

isherwood, it's hard to say at this point. Alaska Air Group intends to fly the RJ's until they are sold. That might take a while. By that point, if oil continues to be sky-high, I think the chances of seeing Q400's on these routes is high(er). If fuel prices calm down, AS might move some of their smaller 737's to these routes as they acquire more -800's.

I don't have any inside information. This is just my best guess...

AH414

Don't forget BOI-LAX . . . it's 674 miles and has been operated with the Q400 for many years now

jackal

I didn't see it myself, but someone said there was a newspaper article (ADN, but I'd assume it was from a wire service and printed elsewhere, too) with reports that some experts (whoever they are) expect oil prices to drop back down to the $60/bbl mark in the next 3-4 years.

No idea what the veracity of those reports are, but if it does happen, I wonder if QX will change its mind about the RJs...

prismwiz

I predict that come early November--mid October in absentee states--that oil prices will suffer a short lived collapse of $80/bbl until going back up for four years. Though it won't be enough to save the CR7's.