PBIGuy

As I was wandering around PHX yesterday I noticed a 737 loading for TUS - which got me to thinking what the shortest mainline flight is. By mainline, I mean operated with a 737/757/319/320/321. A few years ago I flew CLT-GSO on a 737 (and upgraded, nonethelss) but I know that's gone. I've also flown PHL-BWI mainline - not sure if that's still operating. Ideas?

neotope

PHL - LGA has one E190 flight which is considered mainline. That flight is 95 miles.

My shortest flight ever was CLT-GSP which is 75 miles but that was express equipment.

jbcarioca

There once were JFK-LGA scheduled flights at 9NM, probably the shortest mainline scheduled flights. There are quite a few shorter than that but flying Trislanders and such. There was was Wings field to PHL that was about the same length in both Islanders and Trislanders. There are a few threads about this with various permutations.

PBIGuy

Yeah - this topic comes up every once in awhile, but I thought it was time to bring it up again - equipment changes, hubs change, etc. I've also been on CLT-GSP and I swear it was a 737 - this would have been back in the college days of the late 90's/early 2000's (go Tigers).

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

US Air regularly flew ITH-ELM and ELM-ITH with DC-9's and 737's in the 1970's and 1980's. Thirty-two miles, according to the Great Circle Mapper. These flights were sometimes part of a PIT-ELM-ITH-PIT, or PIT-ITH-ELM-PIT flight.

You can view a 1979 US Air timetable at:

http://www.departedflights.com

GoodOmens

BWI - PHL is flown mainline sometimes - that's 90 miles.

bossku69

A flight that I take regularly is MDT-PHL at 84 miles, then from PHL-LAX

geo1005

Back in the day, I've done BWI-DCA and also FLL-MIA.

HereAndThereSC

Used to do CAE-CLT, 88 miles.

HTSC

DCdeacon

I would say CLT-RDU.

I say this because while not the shortest (130 miles), it has the most mainline activity on a short route that I can think of. Currently, it looks like 8/9 flights a day are mainline (4 737s, 2 319s, and 2 321s).

Yes, BWI-PHL has one -190 per day (and sometimes a 319), and yes, TUS-PHX has one 737 per day, and those are a little bit shorter...but I can't think of anything that approaches CLT-RDU in terms of consistent mainline capacity.

bwiadca

I've done RDU-CLT few times on A319.
I don't think that US ever operated CLT-GSP with minline aircraft. I used to take that route a lot from 2000 to 2006. Never ever in the mainline aircraft.
But its the shortest flight that I ever took. USX operated by Chautauqua ERJ-145. Air time from take off to touch down 12 minutes.

QCAir

CLT-GSP takes longer to taxi than to fly the route! I used to live in Greenville (now live in Charlotte), and half the time the GSP-CLT route was a dash-8 sitting with stairs in front of it.

intheairagain

Years ago I'm dating myself US Air flew BDL-BOS not sure what the miles were but it was on a Dash 8 I believe...

DCdeacon

I've been poking around a little bit looking for old routes, and it sounds like yes, there was a LGA-JFK weekly flight for a short period of time in the early '80s...not sure if those were what we're considering to be mainline for this disucssion.

I've also heard of this one a good bit, even before this: UA used to run regular revenue service 727's from OAK to SFO, clocking in at 11 miles, same as LGA-JFK. That probably takes the cake for shortest regularly scheduled revenue service on a mainline aircraft.

I know I talked about short routes with high mainline frequency in an earlier post--Southwest has a number of pretty short routes in Florida, with decent frequencies, all on mainline (of course) 737s. RSW-MCO, TPA-PBI, TPA-FLL, TPA-JAX, FLL-MCO, all are under 200 miles...kindof fun to look at.

My favorite Southwest pairing though are their 25 daily round trips between the 239 miles from HOU-DAL.

IADCAflyer

Yep, I also flew BWI-DCA. Wheels up - 9 minutes.