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Last week, I highlighted the longest of the long haul flights, so this week I wanted to point out the Top 5 shortest flights you can catch in the U.S. If you can only handle a few minutes in the air, these are the flights for you. Some will have you wondering if taxi-ing to them would be just as fast … |
Here are the 5 city pairs that have America’s shortest regularly available commercial flights on jets that hold over 110 passengers (I wanted to weed out props and 50, 70 and 100 seat regional jets, there are a ton of very short flights on those aircraft (especially in Alaska)):
- Petersburg, AK to Wrangell, AK on Alaska Airlines (32 Miles) - Alaska Airlines
- Detroit, MI to Flint, MI on Northwest (55 Miles) - Northwest Airlines
- King Salmon, AK to Dillingham, AK (56 Miles) - Alaska Airlines (service in early Sept 2008)
- Minneapolis, MN to St. Cloud, MN (61 Miles) - Northwest Airlines
- Hilo, HI to Kona, HI (65 Miles) - Island Air
Rick - I think you are missing Tampa, FL to Sarasota, FL here. It’s 25 miles, with two round-trips a day as Continental Connection in a Cessna 402.
Comment by Frederic — November 13, 2007 @ 9:33 pm
Sorry - that was supposed to be 35 miles, not 25. Still a pretty short hop, though.
Comment by Frederic — November 13, 2007 @ 9:38 pm
Comment by Rick Seaney — November 13, 2007 @ 9:48 pm
how about ONT to LAX, i think they actually have this flight once a day even though they are probably less than 50miles apart
Comment by dee — November 14, 2007 @ 7:22 pm
What about SNA to LAX?
Comment by mlbcard — November 14, 2007 @ 11:00 pm
nevermind, i guess that’s a turboprop also.
Comment by mlbcard — November 14, 2007 @ 11:04 pm
Comment by Rick Seaney — November 14, 2007 @ 11:48 pm
I remember as a kid, going to visit my grandmother, and ending up on a flight from YYZ - MIA - FLL, all on the same plane. Not sure the exact type, but definitely a Boeing (perhaps a 737 or 757?). The MIA - FLL segment can’t be more than 30 miles?
Comment by Elliot Campbell — November 15, 2007 @ 12:41 am
I don’t think that PenAir flight from King Salmon to Dillingham is on a plane that holds 110 passengers. PenAir’s largest plane is a Saab 340 that holds at most 36 passengers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_340
Still, thanks for recognizing Alaska. We’ve got heaps of short commercial flights. (Just not on often on big planes).
Comment by Dawson Williams — November 15, 2007 @ 3:32 am
Comment by Rick Seaney — November 15, 2007 @ 8:09 am
Comment by Rick Seaney — November 15, 2007 @ 8:18 am
Southwest used to have a flight from ISP to PVD. It took about 20 minutes. I guess they decided it wasn’t a money maker, but I made that trip several times.
Comment by JenniferJennifer — November 15, 2007 @ 11:16 am
It’s probable that the MIA - FLL flight I took, on at least two separate occasions, was Delta (and I’m willing to bet, at that, was probably one the routes they took over from Eastern, talk about the old days….)
While this shortest flight info is quite interesting, I think it would be cool, though probably more difficult to decipher, the 5 shortest domestic routes flown on a widebody. Perhaps AA’s flight from MIA - MCO (192 miles), flown with an A310 might make that list.
Comment by Elliot Campbell — November 16, 2007 @ 7:26 pm
Hey Rick - as a former airline employee, I can recall a Continental flight from IAH (Houston Bush) to HOU (Houston Hobby). I think that’s longer than 32 miles but I would give it special mention here because it was literally across town.
Comment by Brad — November 25, 2007 @ 9:14 pm
Comment by Rick Seaney — November 26, 2007 @ 7:38 pm
For a few years in the late 80’s to early 90’s, United would run what I would assume would be positioning flights between its narrowbody mx facility at OAK to SFO as scheduled, purchasable flights. UA used noon Thursday as its cut-off between mid-week and weekend discount fares back then. The transbay flights allowed me to leave from OAK at 11AM and connect to the afternoon transcon nonstops for about $20 less than starting my trip at SFO a few hours later.
Comment by Darkwater — December 1, 2007 @ 11:15 pm
I’m with the earlier poster who mentioned the Delta flight from MIA to FLL. In our case, we flew DL from EWR to CVG, and then changed there for our flight to FLL…which made a short stop in MIA to drop off passengers. The flight to Lauderdale took about 5 minutes from wheels up to wheels down.
Michael
Comment by Michael — December 6, 2007 @ 9:59 pm
DAY to CVG is about 20 minutes, and MKE to ORD is maybe 10-12 minutes. I’ve taken both of these and I’m pretty sure Continental was operating both.
Comment by steve — March 29, 2008 @ 4:21 pm
I belive the flight from MSP to STC is on a Sabb 340 turbo prop aircraft. Your thoughts?
Comment by stretch 22 — July 2, 2008 @ 11:36 pm