737-700/800 Trans Atlantic?

[USAirwaysA321NEO]

I've been dabbling around trying to do some trans Atlantic routes in a 737NG and it's telling me I'm limited to certain pax. There are routes Norwegian used to fly with their 737-800's and West Jets seasonal 737-700 routes so I know in real life they can and do make it. Is it because I need to block out cargo and only fly pax?

[Sami]

To my understanding Norwegian is not flying B737NG over the Atlantic. They are using MAX planes (189-seaters), for example Edinburgh-Boston.

That route is 2660NM and B737 MAX 8 is able to fly 3100NM in zero-wind conditions with such seat config. Due to the strong winds the return leg is limited to 183pax on that route in AWS calculations (not sure if they do impose such a limit in real life, but the calculation is not far off even if they wouldn't; 183 vs 189; and in real life LCC operations the weight for pax/bags is probably estimated to be lower than in AWS causing the small difference)

However if there is widebody competition on the route, flying such a long route with a narrowbody plane is not recommended. Passengers won't like that.

And sure, also the older-gen B737 is able to fly across the pond. But you just have to limit the payload more (either choose a smaller seat configuration, or let the system block the seats/payload automatically).

[USAirwaysA321NEO]

Thank you for the detailed information and reply, just curious on how things worked. Still new to the game and making plenty mistakes.

[stealy]

Such routes generally aren't the most profitable because you would lose some passengers who do not wish to fly a 737/A320 across the Atlantic. Like Sami said, the effect is even greater if there are competitions on the route flying wide-bodies. Also keep in mind that flying such routes require almost the maximum range of the aircraft - meaning you lose the ability to carry lucrative cargo in the belly. And often times, cargo is what makes a route profitable. So in general, it is not recommended to fly such routes unless you are already making a lot of money and have ran out of places to fly because your 737/A320 can probably be put to better use flying short to medium haul flights (if they are available).