Airplane delivery flights can take long way

Question: Can you explain how airlines ferry new airplanes?

– Jonah, Birmingham, Michigan

Answer: Ferry flights often use remote airfields for refueling. For the North Atlantic, flights may include fuel stops in northern Canada, Greenland and Iceland.

Flights across the Pacific may fly via Alaska and Russia for fuel stops. Sometimes, extra fuel tanks can be installed to increase the range.

I was involved in Piedmont Airlines’ introduction of the Fokker F-28 in 1983. We ferried the airplane from Amsterdam via Glasgow, Scotland; Reykjavik, Iceland; Sondrestrom Greenland (now Kangerlussuaq); Goose Bay, Canada; Ottawa, Canada; and finally Greensboro, North Carolina. The route was necessary due to the limited fuel range of the F-28.

Q: How do planes get to Hawaii when they don't have the capability to fly over the Pacific? Are they shipped by boat and assembled there?

– Allan Lew - Salt Lake City

A: Most are shipped to Hawaii and reassembled. A few are fitted with additional ferry tanks and flown over.

Q: How did American Airlines take delivery of their A319 from Europe to the United States?

– Charlie, Chicago

A: I do not know the exact route for that delivery, but the A319 has the range to cross the Atlantic without having ferry tanks installed. Note that the longest time over water crossing the Atlantic – from Newfoundland, Canada, to the coast of Ireland – is only about 1,700 nautical miles.

John Cox is a retired airline captain with US Airways.