Originally Posted by spdrun

Interestingly, the runway length at Santa-Ana, CA is about 5000 ft -- they regularly fly loaded MD-80s and 737s out of there. Takeoff is interesting ... hold at the beginning of the runway, run up engines to some high level of power, let go of brakes, accelerate, zoom up to a few thousand feet, cut power to a lower level.

They also have to reduce weight (either by bumping passengers or by reducing fuel load and stopping over at Ontario) if the temperature is above a certain level.