Can anyone tell me if there is an official time limit for a flight in order for it to be classed as long haul ? Also does the aircraft have to be considered to be long haul I.E. a widebody ?
Does 4 hours to the Canaries on an A330 count as long haul for example ?
By: wysiwyg - 8th August 2003 at 09:18
If I remember rightly there are large areas of Siberia that require ETOPS approval as well as other land masses in the world.
It boils down to the fact that all aircraft must be within 1 hour flight time of a suitable available alternate unless they have an ETOPS approval which will extend the flight time allowed accordingly.
AFAIK the jetstream over the western pacific is the strongest jetstream on the planet.
By: skycruiser - 8th August 2003 at 03:40
First of all, the WESTERLY winter jetstream over the north Pacific can be up to 200kts on the nose, and as we are flying in a Westerly direction this means a greatly reduced ground speed and a bloody hell of a long flight.
As we are flying straight into it the flight time extends unlike the flight fom LAX to SYDwhich is a SW direction thus not having the same head wind component..
Don’t forget ETOPS stands for “Extended Twin OPerationS” This means over land as well as water. People often think it only applies over water.
Hope this helps….
By: greekdude1 - 8th August 2003 at 03:07
Originally posted by skycruiser
Just for info, our LAX to HKG in the winter is sometimes 16 hours.
Just out of curiosity Skycruiser, why would winter weather jusify such a long flight time? Correct me if I’m wrong, LAX-HKG is roughly 7200 miles and change. Even with a headwind, LAX-SYD (which I’ve flown almost a dozen times in winter and summer months) which is just shy of 7500 miles, has never taken more than 14 hours (13 with a tailwind on the return).
Just to touch on ETOPS a bit; ETOPS is any segment flown ‘O’ver water (hence the ‘O’ in the acronym) regardless of the length of the flight. So unless you fly over a very large lake, or something, ETOPS doesn’t come into play over land (I think).
By: Hand87_5 - 7th August 2003 at 20:01
That’s very good !! LOL
By: wysiwyg - 7th August 2003 at 19:29
wysiwyg’s rule of thumb:
Can I make it the whole way without having to go out for a pee?
Yes = short haul
No = long haul
By: KabirT - 7th August 2003 at 16:53
Yes i think 6 hrs can be classified as a long-haul.
By: Bhoy - 7th August 2003 at 15:33
I don’t think there’s a specific classification of Long haul, ETOPS only says that a twin engined aircraft must be within 3 hours flight of a possible diversion airport at all times, which, obviously, if you’re flying across land, you’re almost always going to be, anyway.
By: Ren Frew - 7th August 2003 at 13:32
Thanks for the info, so is 6 hours considered to be a notional or official long haul minimum flight time. Is there an official time at all ? And if there is, are there extra regulations that apply to the aircraft such as ETOPS to name but one ?
By: skycruiser - 7th August 2003 at 13:29
Ren,
I the world of ultra long haul, 4 hours is a mere hop. 6 hours is about right for long haul.
Just for info, our LAX to HKG in the winter is sometimes 16 hours.
As for widebody etc, we also put a 747-400 on the 1 hour hops, as the demand is there.
By: Pembo330 - 7th August 2003 at 13:24
The canaries counts as short-haul.
Generally, I think anything over the 6 hour mark is classed as long haul.
The aircraft type can be anything, for example 757s fly long haul across the Atlantic and A330s fly short haul to the Med, so I would say the distance is the judge and guess at 6 hours being the threshold.:confused:
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August 7, 2003 at 1:16 pm