There's little I hate more than contemporary air travel. The bottom line is that they get away with these shenanigans because at raw speeds 4-5x faster than the next-fastest alternative, and the ability to move unimpeded with minimal infrastructure (terminals at the starting and ending points), which allows aircraft to cross any terrain by taking the shortest path, there is often no other reasonable option.
When your options are driving and using up 4 days to get there, paying for gas, lodging, and food throughout the drive, plus deferred costs like wear and tear on your car and the impact this extended travel time may have on your employment, and 4 days back with the same expenses and costs, v. 6 hours in a plane, the answer has to be plane unless the person literally can't endure a plane ride without major medical risk.
Air travel is excruciating. There are a lot of challenges in that industry but we badly need disruption. I suspect the answer will come through small airports and making a NetJets-esque experience more accessible. What can we do to make that a reality?
If I recall correctly, there was a group in Southern California that was going to do a cost-attainable private flight club like this a few years ago, but they never actually began service.
The answer is more heterogenous travel options like rail (either passenger or ferried cars).
Air travel is resource prohibitive, so why is it used for small legs like replacing a 2-3 hr high-speed rail train with a 1.5 hr flight?
Adding inter-metro rail links and integrating trains into ITA network to interlink them would allow those who hate planes to not fly (and get out of everyone else's way).
When your options are driving and using up 4 days to get there, paying for gas, lodging, and food throughout the drive, plus deferred costs like wear and tear on your car and the impact this extended travel time may have on your employment, and 4 days back with the same expenses and costs, v. 6 hours in a plane, the answer has to be plane unless the person literally can't endure a plane ride without major medical risk.
Air travel is excruciating. There are a lot of challenges in that industry but we badly need disruption. I suspect the answer will come through small airports and making a NetJets-esque experience more accessible. What can we do to make that a reality?
If I recall correctly, there was a group in Southern California that was going to do a cost-attainable private flight club like this a few years ago, but they never actually began service.