What is the shortest scheduled airline flight in the U.S. (Islands excluded)?

Factual Questions
1

The title should tell you most of the question. I would like to know the shortest regularly scheduled flight airline flight in the U.S. (either time, distance, or both). There are a few additional criteria.

  1. The flight cannot be to or from an island.
  2. The flight must hold more than 20 people.
  3. It cannot be a charter flight.
  4. You must be able to buy a ticket for that leg of the trip. Sometimes airlines drop passengers off at two airports close together but there is no boarding in between so you cannot buy a ticket between them.

Feel free to take a guess as long as it meets the above criteria if you know any really short ones.

2

United has a flight from O’Hare to South Bend, IN that takes about 25 minutes. I would guess O’Hare to Milwaukee, WI would be simialr.

3

There’s a regular flight of similar duration from Charlotte, NC to Raleigh, NC.

4

Houston to Austin is right about 30 minutes, less if the wind is right.

Looking at Expedia.com I see that Continental offers a number of flights from Houston’s Bush Intercontinental to Ellington Field, a 28 minute flight, probably about 40 mile drive. It would take you less time to drive there if there was no traffic.

5

Thanks for the replies so far. Chicago - Milwaukee is only 40 minutes and Charlotte - Raleigh is 55 minutes gate to gate according to http://www.travelocity.com

6

Detroit Metro Airport to Flint MI is only 36 minutes. Surely something must be even quicker.

7

SF to Oakland?

8

Darn, I was sure that you could fly that leg, but it doesn’t appear in Orbitz or Travelocity. I remember back when airlines were offering great frequent flyer milage people would fly that leg to get the minimum 750 miles for any travel leg.

You can fly LAX to Orange Country, 26 minutes.

9

I was going to say Atlanta, GA to Chattanooga, TN - I remember it being a very short flight - about 25 minutes in the air, but Orbitz shows it as 48 minutes Chattanooga to Atlanta and 53 Atlanta to Chattanooga.
What about something like Manchester, NH to Boston? Hmmm.

10

I seem to recall someone saying you could take a flight from Houston Intercontinental to Houston Hobby. I thought it was bullshit.

11

I don’t think that there are any direct commercial flights between Manchester, NH and Boston. If you really want to do it, American with take you there via New York LaGuardia though. Just make sure you have $400 and 5 hours to spare. Somehow, I doubt this is one of their more popular trips.

12

Slightly off-topic, but in Canada the shortest I could find were:

Baie-Comeau, QC to Mont Joli, QC: 24 minutes, and only 36 miles as the crow flies. However, this is cheating a little since the two towns are on opposite sides of the mouth of the St. Lawrence River.

Rouyn-Nouranda, QC to Val D’Or, QC: 24 minutes.
Quesnel, BC to Williams Lake, BC: 25 minutes.

13

San Francisco to Sacramento is 42 minutes at Travelocity.

14

LAX termial B to LAX terminal E?

15

Duluth, MN (DLH) to Minneapolis, MN (MSP) is 40 minutes according to Orbitz. However the actual flight time is usually under 30 minutes.

16

Boston to Martha’s Vineyard? 34 min by turboprop.

17

(Lohman and Barkley)The Ted J. Baloney Airlines: Daily 747 service from Brawley to El Centro.(/Lohman and Barkley)

18

SFO-OAK may not be available as a leg, but it is available as a bookable flight, connecting in places like Portland (PDX), LAX or Orange County (SNA). At 3 1/2 - 5 hours, not counting check in and security, a person could probably walk there sooner.

19

What interpretation of ‘shortest’ are you using?

For distance, if SFO-OAK was still running, I bet it would have won (only a few miles separates the airports).

Here’s a couple that fit the requirements :
Pasco, WA - Pendleton, OR 41 mi. and 19 min.
Pocatello - Idaho Falls, ID 49 mi. and 20 min.

The shortest scheduled flight that does not cross a body of water is Toksook Bay - Tununak, AK at 6 miles and 20 min., but it doesn’t have enough seats to qualify.

20

SFO-OAK may not be available as a leg, but it is available as a bookable flight, connecting in places like Portland (PDX), LAX or Orange County (SNA). At 3 1/2 - 5 hours, not counting check in and security, a person could probably walk there sooner.