Shortest Jet Flight
 

I was suprised to find out that one of my flights this weekend IAD-PHL of a little over 100 miles was on a Jet. (A320) I thought this was a big plane for such a short haul, normally I fly a gulfstream or prop...

Let's see:

DL has CVG-LEX (70 miles) and CVG-SDF (83 miles).

I remember when EA flew FTL-MIA (some 20 miles)!

United used to fly SFO-OAK using a big jet. The distance is about 10 miles. The flight then continued to the East Coast. This strange situation was written up in a Wall Street Journal story about frequent flyers. Some people regularly flew SFO-OAK, then took BART (the subway) back home, just to get miles. The tickets were very cheap for some reason.

Bruce

The shortest scheduled jet flight I was on went -- years ago -- from San Francisco to Oakland, maybe 9 nautical miles. The flight continued to PDX.

The current UA schedule shows these short jet flights (I've left out duplicate jet flights on the same routes):

UA 786 BUF-ROC 55 miles Boeing 737
UA 5616 ORD-MKE 67 miles Canadair RJ
UA 1924 ORD-MKE 67 miles Boeing 727
UA 877 STT-SJU 68 miles Airbus 320
UA 2916 DEN-COS 72 miles Boeing 737

Some other airline must have scheduled jet service for a route shorter than 55 miles. Bay area inter-airport? MIA-FLL? Caribbean island-hops?



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"If you want to win the game, write the rules."

DL also has ABE-MDT on a 737-300 which is 77 miles.

I dont have the mileage at hand but these are nice and short:

OGG-HNL DL flies a L1011

IAH-HOU CO used a DC9

US Air flys 737's, F100's, A319's from RDU - CLT, just over 100 miles.

They fly 737's and F100's into FAY from CLT that go no where. Flight time is 23 minutes. (They also fly a Dash-8 into FAY)

I'm still glad there's F100's (not so many 732's in here) for those FC upgrades. They may be short but hey...it's FC! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Interesting topic. I suggest that we leave RJs out of this and stick with the big mainline jets.

Houston Hobby to Intercontinental comes to mind. Makes for a last minute mileage runs for those in Houston short of Continental Elite status. A couple daily 737s go in addition to the Express flights.

The HOU-IAH add on is free with the flight from IAH, so many people on the Hobby side of town start their journey in HOU for a cool extra 500 miles.

Nw took me on a jet flight from Flint to Detroit Michigan. It was like a take off and landing without any cruising. The distance has to be under 60 miles, which is what it is by car.

Not the shortest on the already mentioned list, but... I've done PHL-BWI on an A320. It was 89 miles.

Some of Delta's AUS-SLC flights stop in SAT. It's a 19 minute, 70 mile flight. The morning flight is an MD90.

I guess my shortest trip so far is BOS-EWR on a 757 which is kinda strange considering it is only about 170 miles apart. Also CO flies to MEM on those beautiful EMJ-145s but NW flies the big A320 to MEM and then continue to Miami.

I guess I should rule out HOU-IAH and IAH-EFD
since service is no longer operated with jets.

I did find an interesting flight, tho...DCA to IAD...somewhere around 20 miles. It's operated by Midwest Express... and flight time is SIX HOURS. It leaves DCA in the morning and then heads to the Midwest B/4 returning to IAD in the evening.

Unfortunately, Midwest Express does not publish a fare in the DCA-IAD market. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

I wonder why? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

There is a thread on this somewhere from long ago. Alaska Air flys regular jet service between Wrangell and Petersburg (in Southeast Alaska). That distance, if I recall correctly, is somewhere around 23 miles.

Western and then Delta used to fly jets out of DCA which first stopped at IAD before heading out to SLC. Did the same on the way back, I think to avoid the limitations on the length of flights for planes out of DCA at the time. Flew that flight dozens of times headed from DCA out to SLC or various other locations in the intermountain West during the 80's, back when I was a federal prosecutor based in DC.

Djlawman