San Diego International Airport: Difference between revisions

San Diego International Airport is the primary commercial airport for San Diego County.  No airline maintains a hub there, and Southwest Airlines is the dominant carrier.  The vast majority of scheduled flights are to points within North America; currently only British Airways provides intercontinental service with a daily flight to London Heathrow.  Hawaiian Airlines also provides transoceanic service with a flight to Honolulu.  The airport has only a single runway, 9/27, and normal operations call for arrivals and departures on runway 27.

*'''Alaska Airlines''': Alaska Airlines operates a busy schedule from SAN, using various members of the 737 family.  Alaska's special livery planes visit from time to time on an irregular basis. Alaska is quite known for its unusual flights out of SAN. Alaska flies to Kahului and Honolulu with 737-800s, and various Mexico cities with 737-400/800/900 families. Alaska also flies to Portland and Seattle.

*'''Southwest Airlines''': Southwest has by far the largest passenger operation at SAN, with several arrivals and departures every hour.  Most of these flights are operated by the 737-300 and 737-700.  The 737-500 is no longer seen very frequently in SAN.  Fortunately, because of the large number of Southwest aircraft cycling through San Diego, it is not uncommon to see one of the airline's famous special livery planes.

*'''United Airlines''': United operates various narrowbody aircraft to SAN, comprised of the 757-200, A319, and A320.  These may appear in the either the old white and blue United livery, or the new Continental-based livery.  Flights are operated throughout the day.

*'''US Airways''': US Airways brings the 757-200, A319, A320, and A321 to SAN, with most arrivals throughout the morning and in the evening.  Aircraft may be in either the new or old US Airways livery.  The US Airways retro livery A319s make appearances on an irregular basis.  Note that while the schedule doesn't change that often, the equipment types used does change pretty frequently, sometimes varying by the day of week.

*'''Volaris''': Volaris operates the A319 on two daily flights to San Diego. The flight from Mexico City arrives at 9:25am and departs at 10:40am. The flight from Guadalajara arrives at 12:40pm and departs at 1:55pm.

*'''FedEx Express''': FedEx is the largest cargo carrier at SAN, with the A300 and MD-10 making regular appearances. 727s and A310s are seen less frequently. Three flights usually arrive in the very early morning, before 6:00AM, and normally have all departed by 8:00AM. A second set of two flights typically arrives between 4:00PM and 6:30PM.  These usually depart again between 7:00PM and 8:30PM.  One of the Friday afternoon flights, typically arriving at approximately 5:00PM and departing after dark, and one of the Saturday morning flights, typically arriving at 5:30AM and departing between 7:00AM & 8:00PM, are usually operated by MD-10 equipment.  The MD-10 usually flies to Indianapolis/Memphis, and The Airbus A300-600 flies to Memphis/Ontario. MD-11's are rare, usually 2 per year.