I recently made a turnaround trip from my home in Fairfax, VA to Manchester, NH. We flew on a Bombardier CRJ700, a regional jet commonly used for medium-range flights such as mine. It’s a lovely aircraft, modern, comfortable, and safe.
What it isn’t is convenient. I had to drive an hour to get to my departure airport. I had to arrive an hour early to allow for security. I would have had to drive another hour after landing at the arrival airport to get to my final destination. And, on my return, getting public transit back home took an additional two hours.
I cannot say how grateful I am that the flight itself took 11 hours off of the same trip had I taken it by car. But the reality is I had to spend 4 hours so I could save 11 hours. That’s a lot of waste.
Flying is incredibly fast. Connecting to our current flying infrastructure is incredibly slow. One way around this problem would be to use business air service. There are regional airports much closer to me here, and much closer to the destination.
I dream of a time when we have truly local mass-market air travel. When anyone could schedule a flight like we schedule an Uber. When there are so many local outlets available that we can just drive up, park for the day, and fly. Convenient air travel shouldn’t be just for those who can justify today’s…
