For all aircraft which are serviced to the ETOPS standard the word ‘ETOPS’ is painted in white on an orange background on the nose wheel door cover.
It’s pretty unmistakable.
Actually, my use of the word jetty was regarding an area at Mineta San Jose International Airport from which one can watch the passengers disembark (via stairway) from a particular gate and walk into the terminal.
What is ETOPS?
An aircraft marked with ETOPS is no guarantee that is is actually in compliance and used for ETOPS flights. There are dozens of reasons why a particular aircraft is out of compliance. BA doesn’t maintain its entire fleet of 757s, 767s and 777s to ETOPS standards, although they may or may not be marked as such. The only way to know is to check the aircraft’s paperwork.
Looking at one as you drive past doesn’t “give you a good view of whether they are fitted with ETOPS”
The acronymn stands for Extended Twin-engine Operations (Over seas)
The over seas bit is implied as that is what it is meant to cover.
An ETOPS serviced two engined aircraft is permitted to continue a journey on one engine for a maximum of 2 hours.
In contrast a 4 engine 747 is only permitted to fly 30 minutes on 3 engines over sea.
A hotly debated subject in pilots forums everywhere.
I just read the very informative Wikipedia article about ETOPS, but your comment about 4-engine 747s makes me wonder - how the hell do they get across the Pacific? 
If you have Google Earth on your PC then find Heathrow and crank the globe down a bit.
The 747s fly UK - Greenland - Iceland - Canada - US, longest period over uncharted water is approx 40 minutes give or take.
EDIT: Oops your talking Pacific, theres Hawaii, Guam, Phillipines et al.
That is only if they lose an engine though.
No one has mentioned a feature of some 737’s, airstairs. It is a built in folding stairway the extends from just under the forward passenger door. Ryanair and a couple of Chinese airlines are the only planes that are currently being built with them. It allows an airline to land, pull up to the terminal and dispatch the passengers without any help from a ground crew.
That’s what I was referring to when I mentioned European low-cost carriers. IIRC Ryanair have a scheduled turnaround at many airports of 25 minutes.
Maybe I misunderstand. I thought you were saying that a 747 must never be more than 30 minutes’ flight from a landing place in case it loses an engine. Is that incorrect?
Some domestic Australian routes require ETOPS (not overseas) though you are right, normally only long over water flights require ETOPS approval. Also, ETOPS for three hours is available.
Not sure where you’ve got this from. A BA B747 recently flew from the USA to the UK on three engines. It was entirely in accordance with UK CAA and BA company rules. Though the FAA wasn’t too impressed.
In reality the B747 does not require any kind of ETOPS approval. It can be as far away from an airfield as it likes provided it has adequate contingency fuel.
Engines Turn Or Passengers Swim.
I prefer mobile stairs to air bridges, where usually only one is in use. With stairs both the aircraft’s doors are used. This suits me as I like to sit at the back. It also means getting on and off is quicker, and you are not stuck behind some idiot blocking the gangway while he is trying to force an oversize bag into the locker.
I don’t suppose many of them are still flying now but the BAC 111 would have suited you down to the ground (so to speak), it had rear air stairs which lowered between the engines.
…and of course BBJs
