Back when I was a kid, and the taxiwayside lot was open for watching ops, 747s used to be a rather common occurrence. I mostly remember UAL and CP Air. But it seems like it’s been years since that’s been the case (early 90’s?). Wht about nowadays? It doesn’t seem like there is info that is easily available concerning airplane types in and out of SAN. What’s the largest plane serving SAN nowadays? The 777? Could an A380 use it? Has one?
Best look at the rundown for the airport details from Flightaware.
NW used to run a 747-400 in there. BA flies a 777 and ANA flies a 787. If you know SAN, I would venture to guess there’s ZERO way a 380 would ever fly in. I give anything to be on the top of the parking garage if it ever did…
I am no pilot, but to me SAN was always one of the most challenging because of the short runway and the topography on either end of the runway. I didn’t even realize that 747s had gone in and out of there! Wow, that’d be awesome to see.
I imagine that, for an A380, SAN would be like the Roach Motel… they come in, but they don’t come out…
Kind of reminds me of this episode. articles.latimes.com/1987-03-31/ … ilots-land
Cheers and 73 - Jon N7UV
The 787-8 is JAL versus ANA. For awhile during 787 battery problems, JAL subbed a 777-200 for the grounded 787s. The BA 777-200 is sometimes subbed with a 200LR. BA used to operate a 747-400 to LHR but with a stop in PHX. Fully loaded 747 on an overseas flight has runway performance issues with the buildings and hills at either end of 9/27.
You could operate a 380 outta here, just wouldn’t be full of passengers/fuel. There have been some domestic 747 charters out of SAN, including UA’s painted 747 charter. Hawaiian operates an A330-200 daily to HNL.
There are lots of rumors about the San Diego Airport Authority working on getting another overseas airline here. BA and JAL are One World and the hope is that either Star or Sky Team would be the next overseas alliance flight. Personally, as a UA MP, I’d like to see the rumor of LH out of FRA as an added route. The 787 has certainly opened up many more secondary overseas markets with no performance or weight restrictions here in SAN.
While the runway might be long enough to land and t/o an a-380 there are no gates at the airport to handle that aircraft, the gate size issue for the a-380 is even a problem at big international airports such as O’Hare, much less a small one with tight taxiways where anything bigger than a 767 has to cross the runway midfield with an airport escort (SUV with orange lights) and use the other taxiway.
link to article about O’Hare and gate size for a-380