# What's the shortest commercial airline flight you've ever taken? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 6, 2004, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-shortest-commercial-airline-flight-youve-ever-taken/258544 "2004-08-06T00:20:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2004, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-shortest-commercial-airline-flight-youve-ever-taken/258544/61 "2004-08-07T15:26:20Z")
Springfield, Illinois to St. Louis, Missouri. According to [expedia.com](http://expedia.com), the airports are 86 miles apart. I have a rather hard time believing that, as it’s a 100 mile drive from exit 100B (the exit you would take for the Springfield airport) just to the Mississippi River bridge; it’s a good 10-15 miles from the bridge to the airport. So anyway, between 86 - 115 miles, depending upon whom you believe. Takes about 40 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2004, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-shortest-commercial-airline-flight-youve-ever-taken/258544/62 "2004-08-07T17:51:13Z")
About the Westray/Papa Westray flight: is there some reason they can’t use boats for the journey between the islands? ---
**Author:** ![Squonk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squonk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squonk)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2004, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-shortest-commercial-airline-flight-youve-ever-taken/258544/63 "2004-08-07T22:19:35Z")
Gustavus (Glacier Bay)-Juneau, Alaska. Alaska Airlines promotes this as the shortest scheduled jet (737) service in America. 41 miles, 12 minutes (IIRC) take off to touchdown. > [@NinjaChick](#): > > Basically: why is it so often cheaper to fly out of the way, have a brief stopover elsewhere, and then continue on to your destination? Example: last time I flew out to Denver, the cheapest fare went Philadelphia-Minneapolis-Denver and back the same way. > > And also, in recent news, it’s apparently cheaper for me to drive down to Baltimore, get on a flight at BWI, stop in Philadelphia (20 minutes from my house), and continue on to Dayton, OH. Same flight. They charge me two hundred bucks more to spend twenty minutes less on the plane? There is no simple answer to these questions, but I’ll give it a shot since I’m at work and not doing anything. Non-Stops are the most desirable flights, therefore the most expensive. It’s usually less expensive to fly _through_ a city than _to_ it. For example, your Denver flight. Flying PHL-MSP-DEN, I’m guessing on Northwest, is probably cheaper than flying US Air or United PHL-DEN. In fact, Flying just PHL-MSP is probably more expensive on Nothwest than continuing on to Denver. If You flew United or Delta through Chicago or Cincinnati to Minneapolis, that would probably be cheaper than PHL-MSP non-stop on Northwest. It all has to do with hubs. A city with a arline hub tends to have higher prices because of less competition. Philadelphia is a Hub for US Air; Denver for United. So those are your only options for non stops. The same “logic” applys for PHL-DAY vs. BWI-PHL-DAY. If I knew how to do font sizes, I’d make this really big: YMMV! ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2004, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-shortest-commercial-airline-flight-youve-ever-taken/258544/64 "2004-08-07T23:09:00Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > About the Westray/Papa Westray flight: is there some reason they can’t use boats for the journey between the islands? The main purpose of the flight isn’t to link the two islands, but to link each of them to the ‘mainland’ at Kirkwall. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2004, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-shortest-commercial-airline-flight-youve-ever-taken/258544/65 "2004-08-07T23:19:04Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > The main purpose of the flight isn’t to link the two islands, but to link each of them to the ‘mainland’ at Kirkwall. Okay, so it’s the first two stops on a longer flight. That makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2004, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-shortest-commercial-airline-flight-youve-ever-taken/258544/66 "2004-08-07T23:21:49Z")
It certainly makes sense compared to a [sand runway](http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/barra/airport/)! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-shortest-commercial-airline-flight-youve-ever-taken/258544.md?page=3)