Shortest Runway with mainline narrow body service
 

I flew into EYW this weekend, and it made me wonder what the shortest runway with scheduled mainline narrow body aircraft is?

EYW is 4801 feet. DL has scheduled service with a 737 ( I believe -700) aircraft. The pilot put us on the numbers HARD and stopped the airplane fast, which made me look up the runway length.

So are there any fields with scheduled narrow body service shorter than 4801ft?

SNA is 5,700', quite a bit busier than EYW and has much more mainline service serving affluent Orange County. Flown in there twice, flown out once. I don't remember braking any harder than normal either time we landed, but taking off we sure did get in the air quick!

UA landed a 727 at KCGX once. 3900 ft. Technically a mainline plane. :D

Shortest Runway with mainline narrow body service
 

The main reason you get off the ground so quick at SNA is because there are noise restrictions. Correct me if I'm wrong, but every time I have flown out of there it feels and sounds like a full power take off and then when you get to between 500-1000 feet you get a very noticeable power reduction so that the aircraft is quiet when flying over Orange County, specifically Newport Beach. I'm sure the short runway has something to do with it, but we are usually off the ground in about 3000 feet which is only halfway down the runway.

The question is, did it manage to take off again? ;)

According to Wikipedia, no. It was loaded on a barge on it's way to becoming a museum exhibit. However, empty at near sea level, it probably could have, it was designed to be used from smaller airports with shorter runways.

The transcons - with lots of fuel - need more than the 3000 feet but the noise issue you've described is correct.

How are we defining mainline?

My definition of mainline has always been narrow body or wide body aircraft operated by the "named" airline, vs turbo prop and regional jet aircraft operated by regional carriers in the name of the main airline.

Even though in this case some of the CRJ aircraft probably need more runway to take off than a 737-700. Small wings, small engines.

The planes that are borderline are the short small tube (2+3) narrow bodies like the 717 and the short DC-9s.

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Since you did not specify that the airport has to be in the U.S., then I think this one might be the winner:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santos_Dumont_Airport

I think you might be right, that is a small runway. Looking at flightaware they have a lot of 737 and A319 traffic.

Yep, I fly into SDU often and its quite a sight, the scenic approach onto Rio is great, the runway is so short its scary, to make things worse the Sugar Loaf Mountain blocks a part of the way so its not an easy approach, just after landing when the plane turns around to head for the gate you can see the ocean steps away.

Also, it operates one of the busiest routes in the world, CGH-SDU(nicknamed 'Ponte Aérea' or Air Bridge), you can get a flight in either way every 5-15 minutes.

Gol even has a 737 variant specially designed by Boeing because of this, the SFP(Short Field Performance).

I'm pretty sure Dutch Harbor (4100) and Molokai (4494) used to have mainline service, but I believe both have been discontinued.

Been on many Air Florida 737-200 flights into EYW back in the day;) you've got to be "on the money".

And the important question is, how many of you know who Santos Dumont was? :D