United Airlines is operating a special flight from Burbank to Los Angeles today, a flight of only 18 miles.
With the ongoing runway work at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), United is ferrying one of its Airbus A319s from Burbank to Los Angeles. In less than two hours, UA2816 will takeoff from Burbank and head down to the road to LAX. Flight time is scheduled for only 15 minutes.
I’m tempted to get on this flight, though United is not selling tickets on it. I bet I could get on by booking a ticket to San Francisco then re-reouting via Los Angeles. There do appear to be several passengers seated on it.
United used to operate flights from:
- Baltimore (BWI) to Washington (IAD) – 45 miles
- Santa Ana (SNA) to Los Angeles (LAX) – 36 miles
- Ontario (ONT) to Los Angeles (LAX) – 47 miles
- St. Thomas (STT) to San Juan (SJU) – 68 miles
But I’ve never seen a flight this short.
It’s too bad this flight is not a regular occurrence, as it sure beats the commute to LAX. Instead of UA2816, United should have called this flight UA405.
I expect the flight to take a bit longer than 15 minutes, but imagine it will not be climbing very high.
Will any of you be on this special flight today?
image: Aero Icarus / Flickr
UA405.
Well done,
These short flights are always funny. Used to regularly take the 82 mile GSO-CLT flight when I ended up flying on US instead of UA
UAL405 for the 405 Freeway
After doing a quick search on Google Flights, it appears that you can get on that flight from Burbank to San Francisco, among other cities in the US via LA on the flight, like you suspected. The cheapest I’ve found on that flight is to book a flight to New York for $350 in economy class, although I’m sure that there are plenty of cheaper options.
*** The flight from Burbank to Los Angeles ***
I found $285 BUR-HNL 😀
Very tempting.
I believe UA once had scheduled service from SNA to LAX and that was the shortest flight they operated. That too should have been UA 405.
They did. I flew it in 2005. Still have some pictures.
Not sure whether people recall but back in 2011, Jetblue had a “Carmageddon” with a flight from BUR to LGB to bypass the construction and closure on the 405. So they had one of the flight’s designated JB405 and the return as JB406
I remember because Wolfpack Hustle bike crew raced the plane and won.
I used to connect IAH-EFD regularly (28 miles) because traffic across town was terrible. Plus: Free parking at EFD, no add-collect fare and got the extra miles (500 min.) from the segment! EAS had its perks for NASA employees but also for us Houstonians
I seriously considered booking this flight today…I’m only 10 minutes away from the airport. I passed…and I think I am going to regret it for years to come…
Who knows – maybe the ongoing SF construction will create another opportunity! Fingers crossed!
United (Express) also used to fly LAX-OXR (Oxnard), 49 miles. I took it about 10 years ago. Cute little EMB-120.
15″ for a flight. Adding check-in, boarding, taxiing, I wonder if bike is faster….
It was for the Carmageddon experience https://slate.com/human-interest/2011/07/carmageddon-flightvsbike-challenge-how-a-team-of-cyclists-beat-a-jet-blue-flight-from-burbank-to-long-beach.html
Back in the ’80’s (and possibly the ’90s) UA used to fly between OAK and SFO. 11 miles, about 15 minutes and no bridge tolls!
Back when they had an OAK maintenance facility
Didn’t realize there was an SNA – LAX (I’m guessing that was a prop)
D.A.,
You posted exactly what I was going to write.
Not sure if OAK to SFO was a regular scheduled flight…I don’t think it was but I remember the live news media broadcasting it. Roll out, take off & land! 15 minutes if that….more like 10.
I’ve noticed a few ferry/repositioning flights in the past on LY between JFK and EWR.
I also recall Continental selling EWR-JFK/LGA seats when the Devils (who played in Continental airlines arena) were playing the NY Rangers.
It landed 20 mins late
Still faster than the 405 or the 5 to the 105! United ‘s Always Late (UAL)
I flew ONT-LAX many years ago, on a TWA L-1011 from STL. The FA joked that the inflight movie would be War and Peace. Too fun.
I recall SNA-LAX being a United Express flight. Is the BUR-LAX a mainline flight?
Never mind, just re-read the title.
There used to be mainline flights from LAX-PSP several times per day.
500 mile minimum credit. Not a bad multiplier on 18 flight miles.
Early April 94 we flew a Friday after work flight on AA 727 DFW-TPA-SRQ. 41 miles. We flew back on Eagle through Miami.
I saw a United LAX-LGB repostion flight for Angels charter 757 a few Sundays ago. Brought them to DFW. 11 minutes.
United operates 7-8 flights a day between Chicago O’Hare and Milwaukee. That’s 67 miles. It takes 20 minutes on a good day.
But it’s not LA! 😉
This is nothing! Back in the days before the distance limit was extended at Washington National Airport, American Airlines for some time before (a year or two maybe?) flew multiple (I believe) daily scheduled flights from National to Dulles and then on to DFW, picking up passengers at both DC airports (but not selling seats only between DCA and IAD). I flew it once. That was a very short segment too!
If this is just a ferry (which the article suggests) rather than a scheduled service this isn’t exactly uncommon. Here is a 10 mile flight from JFK to LGA for tomorrow morning 9/18
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL9939/history/20190918/1010Z/KJFK/KLGA
Here is an example from today from EWR to JFK (20 miles): https://flightaware.com/live/flight/JBU6111/history/20190917/1110Z/KJFK/KEWR
HPN have recently had hard runway closure at 02Z and delays have forced flights to land at JFK then ferry to HPN (26 miles) the next day, recent example here : https://flightaware.com/live/flight/JBU6140/history/20190912/1010Z/KJFK/KHPN
Also what about the SFO project drove the ferry from BUR-LAX? I am curious…
” With the ongoing runway work at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), United is ferrying one of its Airbus A319s from Burbank to Los Angeles “. I have seen flights operate to OAK instead of SFO to avoid the awful GDPs due to wx / runway construction.
I think BUR-SFO was cancelled and they needed the aircraft so they moved it to LAX.
Back in the 90s, the last DL flight of the day from ATL/FLL flew to MIA first. Pax would deplane and then we’d do the 15 mile flight to FLL. Always hated that itkn.
United had a flight from Chicago to San Francisco with a stop at Oakland .