The spotters' guide series continues with the second-most popular member of the A320 family: the Airbus A319, which as of this writing has secured nearly 1,500 orders. With a length of 111 feet (34 meters), the A319 is some 12 feet (slightly less than 4 meters) shorter than the original A320 model, but is still 8 feet (2 meters) longer than the A318. Airbus lists the standard seating capacity as 124, although up to 156 passengers can be accommodated in a high-density layout. Primary competition comes from the Boeing B737-300 and B737-700. By my count, we currently have ten scheduled carriers using A319s at LAX. To keep things manageable, I'll divide them into groups.
Air Canada
Air Canada started out in 1936 as Trans-Canada Air Lines, and now has a total of 37 A319s. Most are configured for 120 passengers, but a couple have a single-class seating arrangement that accommodate 132. We usually see Air Canada A319s on the Toronto and Montreal routes. Flight times to Toronto are around four hours; Air Canada's longest flights out of LAX are to Montreal, which can run as long as five hours, and are almost always flown with A319s.
With an Alaska B737-400
With an Air France B777-200
This is the other side of the aircraft seen in the first picture
From the archives: With an ExpressJet E145 in Delta Connection colors
Another from the archives: With a Northwest A320Air Canada Fleet
Delta
Delta got its Airbuses when it took over Northwest; it has 49 A319s that accommodate 126 passengers, and another eight, used for sports team charters, that seat 54. We don't see Delta A319s all that much at LAX (witness my lack of photos), although Northwest operated them here daily. I have seen Delta A319s mostly on flights to Phoenix (hour or less), Salt Lake City, and Philadelphia (four-and-a-half hours).
Delta A319 between a B757-300 and a CRJ7Delta Fleet
Wikipedia: Delta Air Lines fleet
Frontier
More than half of Frontier Airlines' fleet consists of A319s. Frontier currently has 41 in service, each configured for 138 passengers. We see Frontier A319s on routes to/from Denver (2 hours), Kansas City (2.5 hours), and Milwaukee (3.5 hours).
With a United Express (SkyWest) E120 Brasilia
From the archives: With a Northwest A320
With an Emirates A380Wikipedia: Frontier Airlines
Spirit
Spirit Airlines has the highest-density A319s at LAX; they have 26 of them with seating for 145 passengers. From LAX, Spirit flies A319s to Las Vegas (1 hour), Chicago and Detroit, and Fort Lauderdale (4 hours).
Wikipedia: Spirit Airlines
Why was the Emirates A380 there?
ReplyDeleteThat actually happened a couple of years ago, when Emirates was announcing that they were going to start direct service between Dubai and Los Angeles. They brought in the A380 for the promotional stuff, but have yet to actually use it on this route because it can't quite carry enough fuel and paying passengers at the same time. They hope to be able to offer A380 service in the future, as the next batch of A380s is expected to have additional capacity found through weight savings in the manufacturing process and/or greater efficiency. In the meantime, they've been using B772s and B773s.
DeleteCV