vincentharris

I guess in 2018 the A321 is going out to the west coast, and I thought the 737-900 was a pain to fly for that long.

I have an ATL-LAS flight and it swapped from a 757 to a A321. Seems REALLY far for one....

Calchas

AA uses 321s on its flagship JFK-LAX/SFO routes in a three class configuration. They also fly then in a two-class from LAX-HNL, but they are payload-restricted because of the prevailing winds.

jrl767

a lot of AA's CLT/PHL<-->SEA/PDX/LAX/LAS/PHX trips -- right up there at 2000-2300 miles -- see the ex-US 321s

Allan38103

There are several conflicting answers for the range. In the interest of safety, go with the lowest number and you can't go wrong. Don't ever reserve a flight longer than what shows as the max range that you find on the internet. That way you're assured of being safe.

ETA: Yes, this is meant to be sarcastic

muishkin

Not at all. The A320 family is used on transcontinental flights regularly. BA use A318s for its London city<—>JFK service with a fuel service and pre-clearance at Shannon on the outbound leg!

The Situation

I am not an aircraft expert, but wouldn't a small motor consume less fuel than a large motor (plus weight savings), thus the small motor aircraft would have a longer range? i.e. a muscle car V8 guzzles a lot more fuel than the 4-cylinder motor in a civic. If Delta has mostly large motor planes, that might explain why they have less range, compared to other operators.

jrl767

"small" meaning lower takeoff thrust rating, meaning longer distance to accelerate to takeoff speed, meaning reduced weight to operate from the same runway, meaning less fuel capacity to carry the same number of passengers, meaning reduced range

woodenshoe101

It doesn't work that way for jet engines. Larger diameter motors have to work less hard for the same amount of thrust compared to a smaller diameter engine (ie., larger motors get much more thrust per unit fuel burned). Only a small portion of the air through a jet engine is ignited with a fuel mix while the vast majority of the air mass bypasses the ignition core and gets "pushed" by the fan (which is driven by the ignition core). The bigger the fan, the bigger the air mass pushed for a relatively small fuel burn penalty, which makes your overall setup more efficient.

As with everything there is a tradeoff between size of the fan(motor) and the weight (and size) of the plane it is being mounted on (so no GE-90 engine on and A320 )

The Situation

Thanks for the excellent explanation woodenshoe! That makes sense.

jrl767

I obviously wasn't clear enough ... the terms have absolutely nothing to do with engine diameter

a "small motor" A320 has CFM56 engines with approx 28000 lb max takeoff thrust; a "large motor" jet -- which has the same engines rated at approx 30000 lb -- has improved takeoff performance, which translates into more payload, which translates into either more seats or more range

Jeff767

Delta as mentioned has several A320 configurations. Range numbers are highly subjective as quoted by the manufacturer. The A320 as a example does poorly out of high hot airports so is often pulled from long SLC flights in the summer. The A320 from the NE in the winter has trouble reaching the west coast. Jet Blue had a refueling hub in SLC for all intents and purposes for years. Factors include tankage on the aircraft, cargo loads on a route, airport temp, airport altitude, runway length, obstacles in the climb path, seat configuration, alternate airport requirements and engine variant installed. Crunch all the above and you arrive at actual range.