I was cooling my heels in the Denver airport last night and noticed that there are regularly scheduled flights from Denver to Colorado Springs on United. The two cities are only 68 miles apart, so I can’t imagine the plane has time to even reach normal cruising altitude. I also seem to recall that there was a “flight” from San Jose to San Francisco, which are only 32 miles apart, but the “airplane” turned out to be a bus. It was ticketed as a flight in order to get people flying in to San Jose for whatever reason up to San Francisco for international flights.
The shortest flight I can recall taking personally was Cleveland to Detroit (149 miles)
So, what’s the shortest commercial airline flight you’ve ever taken?
While I flew in a Metro Airlines plane once, I never did the route for which most of us knew them, that being the Bush (née Houston) Intercontinental to Houston Hobby and back hop. That’s probably ~30 miles.
It really wouldn’t be too much of a surprise to find out that there are small airlines running between the airports of metropolitan areas with more than one major airport.
The shortest I’ve done often is Southwest from Houston to Austin and back (~150 miles). The plane never levels off; you ascend until the quite noticeable point where you start to descend.
I don’t have time to check out the milage right now, but when I lived in the Miami area we used to take evening flights to Nassau, Bahamas.
There was no charge… just the $7.00 airport tax. The casinos paid for the flights, as there was nothing else to do at night other than gamble at the casino.
But in all other respects it seemed like a normal commercial flight, just on a very small plane (although I was never able to spot either rubber bands around the propellers or hamsters).
I’m thinking it was less than the 68 miles from Denver to Colorado Springs.
Chattanooga, TN to Atlanta, GA, ~100 miles. IIRC, the flight took between half an hour and forty five minutes.
It was the first leg of a flight - but from Chattanooga, you have to go to a hub to get anywhere else, so it was either CHA->ATL-> wherever or CHA->Cincinnati->wherever if you were flying delta.
I was also on a flight from Atlanta to Jackson, MS that stopped in Birmingham on it’s way to Jackson, then was going on to…Shreveport, I think. But mileage wise, each of those hops is a little longer, I think.
Probably doesn’t count but I once flew into Burbank, CA and had a continuation ticket on the same airline from Los Angeles. They were delivering a plane from Burbank to LA and gave me a free ride over. Otherwise they put you on a bus. Maybe 20 miles.
Somewhere I read a report of a journalist who was covering a politician that the press plane and the plane the candidate was on flew from Dallas to Ft. Worth, but I thought at the time that must have been a typo. (Isn’t the airport itself called DFW?) OTOH this was a long time ago . . .
There’s a commercial airport in Dallas (Love Field), a smaller airport in Ft. Worth, and major hub DFW smack in between.
My shortest flights:
Harrisburg, PA to Washington National; less than 100 miles straitght-line; in a DeHavilland DHC-6 Twin Otter of Allegheny (“Agony”) Commuter, which is also the lightest commercial plane I’ve been in. That was a contender for the most uncomfortable flight in my life in all aspects and the only redeeming value was that the Federal Government paid for it.
Boston MA - Portland ME and back; just over 100 miles each way; Delta Connection SAAB 340, a definite step up in commuter planes. It was early March on the tail of a winter storm and the winds around Logan were happenin’ … let’s just say that on the follow-up trip in Augus, I rented a car in Logan and took my chances with the Boston drivers.
Philadelphia PA to Baltimore (BWI), MD roundtrip; about 100 miles;going, on a USAirways Airbus A320, and boy, was THAT ever quick – I think we spent longer taxiing around on the ground at Philly than actually flying; coming, on a USAirways Express DeHavilland DHC-Dash-8.
I flew from Sacramento to San Francisco when I was a kid. My mom and I were visiting some friends while my dad was on a business trip, and she doesn’t drive. MapPiont shows it as a 103.4 mile drive; it’s listed as a 43 minute flight. On the way home we had a strong tailwind and made it in about 25 minutes.
More than once I’ve taken the Buffalo to Syracuse flight, back in the days of regulation. Funny thing is, we lived in Fredonia, and while Buffalo is certainly on the way towards Syracuse, you still have to drive upwards of 30 miles to get to the airport for a 150 mile flight!
I flew Southwest Air from Tampa to Ft. Lauderdale for business. My GPS software puts it at 196.4 miles. It took less than an hour, and it beat the hell out of a 5-hour drive.
Charlotte, NC to Knoxville, TN. 183 miles, according to this nifty site. Second shortest was Chicago (forget which airport) to Dayton, OH - 231 miles.
My sister has done the Denver-C Springs hop a handful of times, going to/from school. It’s a lot cheaper than trying to get a long-distance flight to the Springs, and eliminates the need for her to get a ride from Denver back to school there.
I’ve gone from Honolulu to Molokai on Air Molokai - 48 miles.
Heh, that’s even less then going from one side of the Big Island to the other side - 56 miles.
When I was interviewing for my job, I was in college and didn’t have a car. Somehow I had to get from New Brunswick, NJ to Waterbury, CT. This is 150 miles to drive. I ended up flying from Newark to Hartford (141 miles).