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Thai Lion Air primarily flies short-haul domestic routes and most of the time I find myself on an ER version of a relatively new 737. Isn't ER for extended range? And thus costs a lot more per plane?

Incidentally their sister company Malindo also has what seems to be an unnecessary amount of ERs (I just flew on one this morning from KUL to BKK - a 110min flight - and one the week before from KUL to HKT, again under 2hrs).

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    $\begingroup$ What makes you think they are ERs? $\endgroup$
    – GdD
    Feb 19, 2019 at 8:54
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    $\begingroup$ It says so on the tin - the chassis. Also on the emergency procedure leaflet in front of me (737-800ER/900ER). And the wikipedia fleet details. $\endgroup$
    – Matt PLane
    Feb 19, 2019 at 10:39

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Operationally speaking, this may come as a surprise, but it's not the range of the ER, rather the additional exits and flat bulkhead, which allow more seats (note: Lion Air was the launch customer of the -900ER).

The 737-900ER is the same size as the 737-900, but can carry an 26 additional passengers in a one-class configuration. It incorporates an additional pair of exit doors and a flat rear-pressure bulkhead that boosts maximum capacity to 215 passengers in a single-class layout.

— Boeing 737-900ER roll-out in Renton; flightglobal.com; 10 August, 2006

enter image description here
(planespotters.net) One additional exit per side.

enter image description here
(airliners.net) An example of a flat bulkhead on the Boeing 727.

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    $\begingroup$ So ER doesn't stand for "Extended Range," it stands for "Extra Room." :) $\endgroup$
    – TomMcW
    Feb 19, 2019 at 19:32
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    $\begingroup$ @TomMcW Worth noting that ER/LR is a fairly recent Boeing marketing thing. Spec bumps in the past have been denoted by incrementing the model number (MD-81/82/83/88, L1011-1/-100/-50/-150) and Airbus used IGW/HGW for increased/high gross weight. $\endgroup$
    – user71659
    Feb 20, 2019 at 21:35

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