D.C. To Boston

ORF-CLT
ORF-DC 3 airports
IAH-MSY
IAH-DFW
D.C. 3 airports to Boston
NY 3 - Bos
ORD-STL

Gwneva-Lugano: 4h30 minimum by car, 30 mins flight

Beirut-Larnaca, 40 Minutes flight, car? (But forget about it)

Vienna-Bregenz, 6h30 by car, 1h10 flight to nearby Altenrhein

Milan-Palermo: 15 Hours by car, 1h45 by plane

Moscow-Vladivostok, 4 days 16 hours by car, 8h25 by plane

And so on...


Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk

I don't really meant to keep looping back to the statement. But the OP's question is regarding something that's "too short for a plane".

2 hrs flight is certainly not too short, MOW-VVO for 8.5 hours is DEFINITELY not too short. (Seriously, I may as well just do "Drive from London to Delhi", not that much further anyway)

And it's almost insane how many examples are "Well, so and so road takes forever b/c it's always ultra congested". I can understand if it's some rural mountainous highway. But I-95?

And this...

ORF-CLT
ORF-DC 3 airports
IAH-MSY
IAH-DFW
D.C. 3 airports to Boston
NY 3 - Bos
ORD-STL

Let say, Washington to Boston is 439 miles. Of course it takes forever to drive that. But is that "too short" for a plane? There are tons of flight that are shorter than that just within US.
Then the like of ORD-STL or IAH-DFW. It's 4 hours drive, is that really "too long"?

And just another random example I can think of:
CUL (Culiacan) to SJD (San Jose del Cabo) in Mexico - about 1 hour flight, either 14 hours driving (with a 9 hour ferry crossing the Gulf of California), or 35 hours if you dislike ferry that much. Straight Line distance between the two is 157 nmi.

I thought the original question was trying to establish the cross-over point between driving and flying. For that the entire travel time must be evaluated.
Did Wichita to Dallas (actually Richardson TX) a few times for business. Flying and driving.

Driving Office to office, 5 hours 8 minutes (Google maps)
Flying:
Arrive at Wichita airport 1 hour before departure to get through the 6 AM Security Line.
Flying to DFW 1:20
Baggage claim DFW 40 min (if checked bags for a long trip)
Process car rental (Bus, Get car, Check out) 25 minutes
Drive to Richardson 30 minutes in good traffic
Total 3 hours 55 minutes. 3:15 if there are no bags to claim. Going back is about the same.

~ 2 hour difference.

Surprised no one has mentioned this but CLT-ATL! Flight time can be as short as 40 min vs a 4 hour drive with little traffic 5+ with traffic

YNT - DLC: 174km flight distance, but 1360km on the road if you want to avoid ferries.

AUS-SAT. Two large Texas cities that are just a little too far apart to be considered one giant metropolitan area yet too close to have commercial air service between the two. The drive between Austin and San Antonio is approximately one hour. Flying time between the two would be under twenty minutes.

TransWorldOne wrote:

AUS-SAT. Two large Texas cities that are just a little too far apart to be considered one giant metropolitan area yet too close to have commercial air service between the two. The drive between Austin and San Antonio is approximately one hour. Flying time between the two would be under twenty minutes.

AUS-SAT is not too far to drive.

I haven't read all the posts but unless I am missing something, the answer is none.

Also, someone needs to tell these airlines all these routes they are flying like Boston - DC with their hourly flights are too short.

Ok, I think it’s very difficult to beat this one in the technical sense: TNG-GIB is 69km(43mi) flight distance, but more than 10k km by ground transportation only. And being long isn’t the only problem you’d face should you decide to drive this route.

IAH - DFW or HOU - DAL or just Houston - Dallas. Can be done in less than 5 hours, but 50 min flight time. But a short flight I've been on is DL's ATL - HSV service. So short, they just hand out bottled water. Filed Altitude is 23000FT.

bigb wrote:

IAH-DFW

The most successful airline in the history of aviation launched their airline flying frequent flights between Dallas and Houston. 47 years later they are still flying them with 19 daily flights in each direction.

Cost should be considered. And hassle. For example if I need a plane ticket for my work, I must first get an order of mission, it has to be validated by HR, then someone else must buy the plane ticket, using only certain airlines, then I don't even know how to rent a car (I've only done it from my office where there is a Hertz inside the building). So last Sunday I drove all day ORY-NCE, worked 1 hour Monday, then drove back the rest of the day. 1900Km total, all on highways.

What about the air taxi services in Alaska to remote towns? Oftentimes, flying is the major way around the state.

TransWorldOne wrote:

AUS-SAT. Two large Texas cities that are just a little too far apart to be considered one giant metropolitan area yet too close to have commercial air service between the two. The drive between Austin and San Antonio is approximately one hour. Flying time between the two would be under twenty minutes.

Agreed, this is why one regional airport wouldn't work in the way that it does for DFW, our Metros connect but two counties seperate Travis (Austin) and Bexar (San Antonio) while Dallas and Tarrant (FW) counties border eachother. Best to have two anchor airports for the region as a whole.

Wasn't there a time several decades ago of a route between the two cities?

FoxtrotSierra wrote:

short by inflight time, but too impractical to drive? (ie. 5+ hrs.)

I think you answered your own question there...

JDawgboy512 wrote:

TransWorldOne wrote:

AUS-SAT. Two large Texas cities that are just a little too far apart to be considered one giant metropolitan area yet too close to have commercial air service between the two. The drive between Austin and San Antonio is approximately one hour. Flying time between the two would be under twenty minutes.

Agreed, this is why one regional airport wouldn't work in the way that it does for DFW, our Metros connect but two counties seperate Travis (Austin) and Bexar (San Antonio) while Dallas and Tarrant (FW) counties border eachother. Best to have two anchor airports for the region as a whole.

Wasn't there a time several decades ago of a route between the two cities?

US flew AUS-SAT in the early 90s.

Other short routes:

AA flew GSO-RDU which is even shorter by about 5 miles when RDU was a hub in the late 80s to early 90s.
US Express flew DH8 between DCA and BWI when BWI was a hub in the early 90s.
EA and DL flew MIA-FLL in the 70s and 80s and most if not all of the time they were widebodies.
PI flew GSO-INT in the 80s.
The shortest route in the US was SFO-OAK which UA flew in the 80s with a 727. Actual flying time was 4 minutes IIRC.

I agree 4-5 hours can be a break point, but there are a couple of other factors of plane vs. car/bus/train/ferry.

Cost - for many driving a car they already have, assuming in good condition, or taking a bus or train may be cheaper, especially if on short notice or at holiday peak periods. A co-worker who has traveled from NYC to Pittsburgh around major holiday times would love to take the plane as shorter in overall time and his family doesn't live far from PIT, but the airfares are just beyond his budget.

If don't own a car - car rentals can be expensive or not an alternative if too young to rent or at a reasonable price or limited due to lack of credit card or other financial issues to do so. Flying can be too expensive, especially at peak holiday times. Bus or trains may be a viable choice if available. Some major college towns for example have direct bus services operated on a contracted basis from those communities to major cities (ie: like with upstate NY State colleges and NY City). Of course in Europe for example, trains are fast, excellent, cost efficient, with good public transport at either end to get to a final destination.

True point to point time - The time it may take you to get between a distant town and an airport at either or both ends may make driving a car time efficient. In a car, you don't need to deal with the time to get to/from the airport, and have the flexibility to come/go as needed or can do so.

Traffic and weather - As others have noted, travel to and around major urban areas no matter when travel as to day or time of day can take too much time. While weather can affect air flights too, road travel, especially in the winter, can be a poor choice.

If using a short flight for a connection for a longer flight to a major airport. Sometimes the connecting flight may be cheaper than driving, parking, car rental, fuel, tolls, time, etc. than driving/bus/train to that major airport.

Limited non-air flight options. Some locations may have poor or very limited bus services. In the USA, Amtrak operates only a few routes. Buses may offer limited services or none at all while a flight may mean someone can pick you up or can get an affordable taxi.

MIA-TPA: 1hr by flight, almost 4 by driving (operated by AA)
IAH-MSY: 1hr by flight, over 5 by driving (operated by UA and NK+ WN from Hobby)
JAX-ATL: 1hr by flight, almost 5 by driving (operated by DL and WN)
DTW-GRB: 1 hr+20 mins by flight, 7 by driving (operated by DL)

ltbewr : add carpooling to your list.

Which include families of course. I've done very long journeys by car/minivan with my parents, sister and brother, we didn't even consider flying. We weren't going to hotels either, but camped.

Usuario wrote:

Ok, I think it’s very difficult to beat this one in the technical sense: TNG-GIB is 69km(43mi) flight distance, but more than 10k km by ground transportation only. And being long isn’t the only problem you’d face should you decide to drive this route.

Sure, but in a purely technical sense. You could just drive down to Tarifa and take the ferry, which basically solves the issue. Sure, you're not technically "driving" all the way, but you'll get there with your car and it won't be difficult.

AMS-BRU, 25 minutes flighttime, operated by KL 5 times a day.
1:45 By train, 2 hours by car.
The only reason this flight even exists is simple: connections, nothing else.

IADCA wrote:

Sure, but in a purely technical sense. You could just drive down to Tarifa and take the ferry, which basically solves the issue. Sure, you're not technically "driving" all the way, but you'll get there with your car and it won't be difficult.

Yes. In fact it’s so extreme that Google maps will ignore the ‘avoid ferries’ option.

Usuario wrote:

IADCA wrote:

Sure, but in a purely technical sense. You could just drive down to Tarifa and take the ferry, which basically solves the issue. Sure, you're not technically "driving" all the way, but you'll get there with your car and it won't be difficult.

Yes. In fact it’s so extreme that Google maps will ignore the ‘avoid ferries’ option.

That's one of the more interesting things I've seen posted on this thread (seriously - it speaks to something we experience a lot but never see). Thanks.

Westray - Papa Westray

60sec by plane
40mins by car

Alaska is full of flights that take 15-60 minutes vs. car travel that either requires hours or in some cases, is not possible at all.

Nanaimo to Vancouver is less than 20 minutes. However since Nanaimo is on Vancouver island and you add in a ferry ride of 2 hours and an additional 30 minutes at each end etc etc. I would assume that routes where there are islands and mountainous regions win the car versus air. For example Vancouver to Seattle is 45 minutes by air and about 2 and a half hours by car (border crossing dependent) so no-one would fly to Seattle unless they're connecting.

Some examples:
Bangkok to Hua Hin
around 30 minutes by plane, but 4 hours drive there
So far, no airlines serve it due to the airport being a air force base, and the runway is really short
Bangkok to Pattaya
also 30 minutes by plane, but depending on the traffic conditions in Bangkok, it ranges from 2-5 hours by car.

AEP or EZE to MVD is a 35 min. flight. but a +6 hrs. drive (or much more if long queues at the country border in high season).

IAD to ORF! Granted, I-95 and I-64 are no picnic, but seriously, by the time you waste at IAD checking in, going through security, using the shuttle or train to your terminal, walk 10 miles to your gate, and potential delays, you could be halfway (or more) there by car!