You may have heard that American Airlines just introduced the shortest commercial flight in the Untied States. As far as I can tell, that is not the case and the shortest flight in the USA remains unchanged. So what is shortest USA airline route?
American Airlines Announces New 29-Mile Flight
As part of its latest route consolidation in order to maintain service to all stations (as required by the CARES Act), American Airlines has a new “milk route” from Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) to Eagle-Vail (EGE) to Aspen (ASE) to Montrose (MTJ).
Eagle to Aspen is only 29-miles.
While American Airlines might boast the shortest U.S. commercial flight for a legacy carrier, there is a shorter regularly scheduled commercial flight that has been around for years.
Cape Air Offers A Shorter Flight
Cape Air is an interesting carrier that offers shorthaul service in several regions including:
- Caribbean
- Florida
- Micronesia
- Midwest
- New England
Its New England route map includes shorthahuls like Hyannis (HYA) to Nantucket (ACK) – 31 miles and what is really the shortest route in the land, Hyannis (HYA) to Martha’s Vineyard (MVY), a journey of only 26 miles. Yes, by three miles Cape Air has American Airlines beat.
CONCLUSION
The shortest domestic flights I have ever taken were Santa Ana (SNA) to Los Angeles (LAX) on United Express, a journey of 36 miles and from St. Thomas (STT) to San Juan (SJU), a journey of 68 miles (that is once again running on Untied). AA’s latest little hop may be the shortest flight in the USA offered by a legacy carrier, but Cape Air still offers scheduled commercial service of an even shorter distance. Since the AA flight is operated by SkyWest anyway, I’d give Cape Air the distinction of offering the shortest domestic flight in the United States.
Now all we need is Eastern to restart service between Fort Lauderdale and Miami, a distance of 21 miles…
What is the shortest domestic flight you have ever taken?
image: Cape Air
Niagara Falls to Toronto City Airport on FlyGTA airlines was the shortest I’ve taken. 32 miles with amazing views on approach.
My shortest flight to date is DTW-MDW on SW.
SJO (San Jose, Costa Rica) -> XQP (Quepos) on Sansa Airlines. Just looked it up, 38 miles. One of my few gravel runways…
Actually, I believe the shortest flight is Westerly, RI to Block Island; clocking in at 17mi and operated by New England Airlines.
America’s shortest flight in America’s smallest state!
Wow, I had no idea! Good find.
Ryan beat me to it. I have taken that flight many, many times.
The shortest I’ve done wasn’t very short – DFW-OKC, 175 miles, on AA. Frankly, from where I live, it’s usually quicker just to drive to Oklahoma City after factoring in getting to the airport, security, picking up a rental car, etc.
Other family members have done DFW-TYR (Tyler), which clocks in at 102 miles. I believe the shortest commercial flight out of DFW is to ACT (Waco), which is 89 miles. Of course, one should NEVER fly from Dallas to Waco, because it eliminates the ability to buy a box of kolaches at the Czech Stop in West on the way there and back.
Your reason for not flying between DFW and ACT is wise indeed.
Near the end of a flight from GYE-MIA, our flight had to abort landing at MIA (and we were almost on the runway) due to a thunderstorm. Flight quickly headed out over the ocean, and eventually diverted to FLL, low on fuel. Following a delay of 3 more hours at FLL (same storm moved over), we did an FLL-MIA segment, Which was the shortest “flight” I’ve ever taken.
Yet is wasn’t as quick as you’d think because you more than double the distance due to takeoff and approach patterns.
ONT-SNA due to diversion from fires/wind. 30 miles air distance or 4 hours driving:)
I loved the EFD to IAH flights back in the day. Clear security at a tiny airport, free parking, and never got above 4000 feet. 26 miles, so apparently same as Cape Air.
How about Maui to Kona on UA 777? Does that count as the shortest flight in a wide body?
DTW – TOL, 49 miles, used to be Delta’s shortest flight.
Delta flew FLL-MIA in the 1970’s. Also Mohawk and Allegheny flew ISP-BDR in the ‘60s.
“Untied”? Freudian slip or typo ? Anyway, I remember way back when Moby Dick was still a tadpole, a bunch of people flew SFO to OAK at the very end of a Mileage Plus promotion where the gave you triple miles for the entire following year for flying one segment.
UA used to fly DEN-COS using a DC-10 aircraft back in the late-80’s,…it wasn’t daily, but a few times a week… in addition they once had an OAK-SFO flight.
When was the SNA to LAX flight? I wonder when they stopped offering this?
I flew it in 2005. I believe it stopped somewhere in 2006 or 2007.
I also remember that flight from SNA to LAX on the Embraer 120 – a quick way to earn 500 miles with MP in those days.
My shortest was PHL-ACY on US Airways Express (Air Midwest) on a Beechcraft 1900. 46 miles.
Matt, too bad you didn’t take that BUR-LAX flight on United a while back. 😉 I know that you regretted that in the end. While it was a one-off, it would allow to claim you’d been on a shorter flight!
sniff
You had to bring that up…
I’ve also done the SNA/LAX hop on my way to SYD; the vagaries of award routings had me going MSP/DEN/SNA/LAX/SYD all in F except (obvs) SNA/LAX on an EMB120. Fun flight!
Also did CLT/GSO on a US737. Maybe 15 minutes in the air. Unsure if they even raised the gear…
Back in the 70s with heavy restrictions out of Washington’s DCA, Delta used to run flights from DCA to BWI – 38 miles – then on to destinations farther afield like New Orleans. It was fun lifting off form BWI and seeing the DC skyline in the haze right at take off.
I’ve done DPS-LOP, and I suspect many other readers have as well.
Also POS-TAB.
Neither are US, but both are domestic.
UA used to operate a few positioning or tag flights OAK-SFO. That’s 11 miles! I flew that flight once, making a connection at SFO to SEA. That was when the OAK-SEA fare was hundreds of dollars lower than the SFO-SEA fare. What’s not to like, saving hundreds of dollars and earning an extra 750 EQMs and 1500 RDMs. I think this was when the segment minimum was still 750.
This is definitely not the shortest commercial flight in the US, by a long shot. Mokulele and Makani Kai both operate multiple daily flights between Molokai (MKK) and Kalaupapa (LUP). It’s about a 5 mile flight that takes roughly 4 1/2 minutes in the air.
Fascinating flight to take, although the 4 hour required tour of Kalaupapa was a bit of a let-down.
Shortest scheduled commercial in the US I took was Cieba to Vieques. There were 3 carriers that did the route. It was no more than 14 miles and took less than ten minutes. My 10 year old nephew sat by the pilot so we told him not to touch anything. It was a great fun flight.
TPA => FLL
Same as you noted… LAX to Orange County. Enjoyed it because it was so short–yet the flight attendant still gave me a Coke. The good old days. 🙂
Looks like these are puddle jumper prop planes. What’s the shortest flight on a commercial jet?
What about WST-BID? Under 20 miles and is flown by New England Airlines. They are as much a commercial airlines as Cape Air, with IATA code and all.
The shortest flight I have ever taken Was from AVL (Asheville regional airport) to KCLT (Charlotte Douglas international airport. The flight time total was 11 min at around 11,000 ft and it was onboard a emb-175
Northwest had a Detroit (DTW) to Toledo (TDZ) that I would take because it was cheaper when booking from DCA.