Well, I need to take the GRE to get into grad school. Problem is I live in Denmark, and it’s not easy to book here, so I had to go to Germany to do it. I booked a test in Germany in Berlin on the 30th, so I’m flying in, in the morning, and coming back home at night. Really quite sad and a waste of money, it seems…
I had a connecting flight between Copenhagen and Malmö once - I flew into Copenhagen from one of the London airports and not until reaching the boarding gate for the second leg did I realise that the connecting ‘flight’ was by hovercraft.
I flew from Providence, Rhode Island to Spain last November and we had a layover at JFK in New York. I remember getting there and realizing we could have just taken a bus. All together we spent 2 hours in the Providence airport and 3 waiting in JFK, when the bus ride is only 3.5 hours…
The flight itself was pretty though.
The shortest flight I’ve ever done was probably Berlin to Frankfurt (for two major cities.) Shortest ever was probably Philadelphia to State College, PA.
I actually traveled more than 2000 miles just to take the general GRE. Of course, my options were to take it while I went home during spring break (and the testing center in Albuquerque is about a mile from my parents’ house) or spend two hours driving on little two-lane roads in Pennsylvania on a weekend. That was an easy choice.
The flight from Luton to Amsterdam was kind of interesting too - the plane went up, then it started going down, and we were there.
Shortest flights I’ve been on:
Knoxville, TN - Charlotte, NC. About 50 minutes in the air.
London - Brussels. There was a good tailwind, took us exactly an hour (which was cool, arriving at the same time I left).
Albuquerque, NM - Denver, CO. About 1:15.
London - Dublin’s maybe 1:20.
Providence to JFK is my shortest flight too. You fly so low though that the scenery is great. I think it was maybe 30 min gate to gate.
I’ve probably been on more flights of less than an hour than those longer than that. The shortest times actually in the air have been London Stansted to Glasgow Prestwick (no wait to get in to land at the latter) and Leeds Bradford to Dublin (took off and landed east to west, without any circling). Both maybe 30 mins off the ground.
Trivia challenge (no Google, gentleman’s honour): what’s the duration of the tshortest scheduled flight in the world?
Two minutes. Westray to Papa Westray, in the Orkney Islands.
The shortest scheduled flight in the world is Kirkwall - Westray - Papa Westray. The Westray - Papa Westray leg takes two minutes flying time.
ETA Didn’t see your post GorillaMan!
Well, I actually meant that it would be the first time i’ve flown where I returned on the same day, but whatever, use the thread for whatever you want!
I’ve done Milwaukee to Chicago (to catch another flight, it was cheaper to fly out of Milwaukee than to drive to Chicago to catch the same flight, go figure).
We were in the air less than 15 minutes, and spent more time in Chicago taxiing and waiting for a gate than we spent in the air.
We flew first class too, for all that was worth!!! No food, no beverage, no nothing!
Ah, OK! I’ve done that several times: London-Brussels for a day trip, Manchester-London when it was cheaper than the train for an early morning departure, etc.
On that same vein, I did a Frankfurt to Munich flight, then Munich to Venice.
I was 19, drank too many tasty German beers and passed out in the airport, missing my Frankfurt to Venice direct flight.
The Tel-Aviv - Eilat route (about 200 miles by road, less as the crow files) is fairly well-patronized – go figure… I guess we’re such a small country that driving for 4 hours is just too much for many Israelis, who just say “screw that! I’m flying down!” 
It is a beautiful flight, though!
Sometimes on flights from Birmingham to Dublin I think the pilots enjoy taking the piss: “Ladies and gentlemen, we have now reached our cruising altitude <beat> We are now beginning our descent into Dublin.”
Many years ago, we were flying from Raleigh-Durham to Dallas. The flight had one stop en route: in Greensboro. Greensboro is maybe 70 miles from RDU, probably less. We literally took off, ascended, then began the descent immediately. Maybe 30 minutes all in all.
That’s funny - I think Canadians really like to drive. Anything less than about 10 hours, we just hop in the car and go. Heck, even more than ten hours - still drive it. Just have to plan a little more. A four hour drive isn’t even considered much of a stretch here. Each driver of a long drive would probably take three hour legs. Cultural differences, man. Fascinating.
There used to be a flight from Oakland to San Jose, about 30 miles. It was the last leg of a flight that originated in the midwest, so it was on a large passenger jet. You could book just this leg, though.
I went to expedia to see if this flight was still offered. Apparently not. But they will book you a one way flight from OAK to SJC. However, it will take you 4-6 hours because you’ll travel by way of LAX, Orange County, etc. Two stop itineraries are also available!
I have a friend who once flew from Chicago to Amsterdam for a four-hour meeting. If I’m not mistaken, he never left the airport; just had the meeting at one of the airline lounges there.
Although it’s not quite as short, at 122 miles, you can do the same thing between Shannon and Dublin, with an A330 arriving from or en route to Chicago or Boston.