Spinoff of spinoff: shortest flight you’ve taken

[bcla]

I get that there are some short hops in puddle jumpers, but I’m thinking regularly scheduled commercial air travel. As in so short you wonder if driving doesn’t make more sense.

For me it was Reno to San Jose (California) coming back from Las Vegas on the defunct Reno Air. It’s scheduled for a bit over an hour, but maybe 20 minutes of that is taxiing and waiting in line for takeoff. I’ve also taken LAX to Vegas, which is a few minutes longer.

I never took it, but United used to have flights between San Francisco and Oakland. It was supposed to be San Francisco to Oakland to Denver, but any segment could be booked. I heard mileage plan members would book it quite often near the end of the year to get the last segment or the minimum 500 miles to make status. I also recall seeing a schedule that had Oakland to San Jose with a fixed fare of $8.

 

[HarperLeigh]

MKE to ORD

 

[sam_gordon]

I've done Cincinnati to Lexington and Cincinnati to Indianapolis. I think you're in the air maybe 20 minutes (especially if the take off is in the "right" direction) for both of those. Drive time is ~1 hour - 1:15 from airport to airport Lexington-Cincinnati.

 

[PollyannaMom]

Boston to NYC (and back). It was years ago, for a work meeting.

 

[soccerdad72]

Charlotte to Myrtle Beach

 

[DisneyHardin]

Louisville to Cincinatti - it is about a 10 minute flight. One time I was sitting next to a lady that had never done that flight before and she thought it was a typo in her itineray for the flight duration.

 

[amberpi]

Ft. Lauderdale to Tampa I've taken a number of times otw to Nashville which is 30ish minutes in the air.

I routinely fly Nashville to ATL, which is about 30 minutes in the air - too short for drink service in fact.

Vegas to Burbank is short and I've done that a few times, but the others are shorter.

 

[DopeyDame]

Growing up, I did Philadelphia to Scranton several times. It's a 2 hour drive. You were definitely on the ground taxiing for takeoff and landing longer than you were in the air, and with security at the airports these days, there's no doubt that door to door is faster driving.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

San Francisco to Sacramento. I took the old PSA shuttle.

 

[Cirlonde]

OKC to Dallas via Southwest. It's listed as a 55 minute flight time, but you're actually in the air less than 30 minutes. I'm always shocked that the flight attendants have time to serve drinks/snacks!

 

[leebee]

Lansing to Detroit
Bangor to Boston

 

[RangerPooh]

Pullman, WA to Seattle, WA. It's about an hour. Occasionally you'll go Pullman, WA to Lewiston, ID (or Vice Versa) while en-route to/from Seattle and that's a 10 minute flight.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

St. Louis to Louisville
St. Louis to Kansas City
Harlingen to San Antonio

All of the above 249-260 miles.

The STL to KC trip is the pits as it begins with a 70 mile drive in the wrong direction, followed by landing 45 minutes outside the city of KC. It's quite literally impossible for me to make this flight quicker than I can drive it.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

Going from ABE to BOS, but took a small commuter to New York (don't remember if it was Laguardia or JFK) then changed planes in New York. I think we were in the air 45 minutes from ABE to New York.

 

[bcla]

The thing about SFO-OAK was that it almost a straight shot. It's literally 9 miles in a straight line, and planes would basically never get above 3000 ft. They'd basically be spending most of their time turning around to line up with the runway approach.

These days I've heard that some charter flights do this flight - especially for professional sports. Most team hotels are in San Francisco, so they'll fly into SFO to go to the hotel first. Then on the way out they'll be sent by a team bus to OAK, where their charter will be repositioned.

 

[DebbieB]

Philadelphia to Baltimore. I was coming from Pittsburgh and could not get a non-stop flight. Back then you could only use electronics above 10,000 feet. When they said it was OK to turn them on, I put my iPod on, I only made it one song before they announced time to turn it off.

 

[cluvsdisney]

NYC to DC on the shuttle. This was way before 9/11 when you didn't have to get to the airports so far in advance.

 

[RedAngie]

I get that there are some short hops in puddle jumpers, but I’m thinking regularly scheduled commercial air travel. As in so short you wonder if driving doesn’t make more sense.

For me it was Reno to San Jose (California) coming back from Las Vegas on the defunct Reno Air. It’s scheduled for a bit over an hour, but maybe 20 minutes of that is taxiing and waiting in line for takeoff. I’ve also taken LAX to Vegas, which is a few minutes longer.

I never took it, but United used to have flights between San Francisco and Oakland. It was supposed to be San Francisco to Oakland to Denver, but any segment could be booked. I heard mileage plan members would book it quite often near the end of the year to get the last segment or the minimum 500 miles to make status. I also recall seeing a schedule that had Oakland to San Jose with a fixed fare of $8.

There used to be plenty of those short "tag on" flights back in the day. SFO-OAK was probably the least distance.

There were regularly scheduled flights, utilizing larger planes (DC-9, 727, etc.) such as from Syracuse, NY to Rochester, NY then on to Detroit. Or Bangor to Portland, Maine to Chicago. Norfolk to Richmond, Virginia to wherever. Not enough demand at either airport to fill a plane, so the airlines would combine the destinations. These days they use the smaller 50 seat planes and fly to each airport individually.

The shortest I flew was Miami to Fort Lauderdale to Philadelphia. Eastern Airlines normally had individual non-stop flights from both FLL and MIA to PHL, but on occasion would combine the last flight of the night. AFAIK, you could book the MIA-FLL leg separately.

 

[hopemax]

Bellingham, WA and Seattle, WA. It's 88 miles by car. When we first moved there, it was just puddle jumpers. But later PSA started flying jets in. When they went defunct United continued for several years, then they left. I think someone may still fly to Las Vegas twice a week, but I haven't looked in over 10 years.

When I was in middle school, I participated in a city science trip to the Bay Area. On the way home we had like a 4 hour layover in Seattle and we were all thinking, we could have just driven home in two."

 

[ELKA]

NY to Martha's Vineyard, Continental used to and now Jet Blue.