Originally Posted by
sbm12
I don't see how just overflying the airport would be allowed given the perimeter rule. The "touch and go" idea is interesting but I'm guessing they'd have to properly land and then take off again to meet the spirit and letter of the rule. And getting enough people on board for that funky routing, especially when there's a chance of a ground delay program at LGA stranding passengers in central Kansas rather that a major airport, seems quite a challenge.
Even if it wasn't a touch and go but a landing and turn around and take off in 3 minutes would almost be like a non-stop. That could be done daily except Saturday. Or they could, if required, do a quick turnaround, like 15 minutes at the gate. If there's a ground delay, then they could land at EWR.
The basic theory is UA would be the only practically non-stop SFO-LGA flight. It doesn't have to be Salina, Kansas but that has so little traffic that there wouldn't be any ground delay at the stop. There wouldn't have to be an hour stop either.
If touch and go was allowed, the stop could be ORD but priced so high that nobody would get off or board at ORD for the LGA flight. Then, the flight could be diverted and actually touch and go in Rockford, IL (RFD) or other airport where there's no ATC delay.