I finally flew the shortest flight in our system the other day. It was from Houston-Intercontinental (IAH) to Houston-Ellington Field (EFD) which is no further than across the city. Cruise altitude was 3000′ on the way down and 2000′ on the way back the next afternoon. I couldn’t really think of a picture that I could take enroute that would capture the shortness of the flight so I took a picture of the FMS before the first flight.
It was scheduled for 28 minutes from door close to door open with a 12 minute flight planned time. Obviously that time isn’t real world as we don’t actually waste time flying to the nearby fixes. We took off to the south directly towards Ellington Field and almost immediately told to intercept the localizer for the north-south runway. Southerly IAH operations launches you almost directly at the runway for Ellington Field which insures a short flight time.
From the FMS picture you can see that Ellington Field is only 23.6 NM away with a direct flight time of 4 minutes. It would have been 4 minutes for us if we didn’t need to slow to land. 🙂 It ended up being about 6-7 minutes from wheels up to wheels down.
We’re stopping service to EFD soon so I’m glad I was able to experience it at least once before the end.
By: greekdude1 - 2nd May 2004 at 19:34
Why do people fly such short distances? By the time you have checked in for the flight and then disembarked and passed through the destination airport, wouldn’t it have taken at least 3 or 4 times as long as going by road?
Over 95% of the time I fly United, Michael, I fly the ONT-LAX leg at the start and end of my journey. ONT being a 5 minutes drive from my house, plus $6 a day for parking make this very feasible. With no traffic and driving like a madman, it would take me 45-50 minutes to drive to LAX. With traffic, forget about it, 2 hours+. It’s just so much easier. I’d rather be relaxing in UA’s Red Carpet Club throwing down a few during a layover than sitting on the 60 Freeway where there is traffic about 80% of the time, in either direction. Anybody that lives in the 909, not-unlike myself, that flies United is so much better off starting their journey in ONT rather than driving to LAX. Not to mention, a little 10 minute 47 mile flight gets me 500 MP miles each segment. Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about! 😀
By: Whiskey Delta - 2nd May 2004 at 19:20
Why do people fly such short distances? By the time you have checked in for the flight and then disembarked and passed through the destination airport, wouldn’t it have taken at least 3 or 4 times as long as going by road?
Even though it’s only across town the drive time north to IAH is about 1.5 hours thanks to traffic and it’s not a straight line drive. This particular airport is very close (just down the street) from Houston-Hobby which happens to be a hub for the Low-Cost Carrier Southwest Airlines. The leg from EFD to IAH is thrown in for free to passengers to tempt them to chose to fly CAL rather than Southwest. The flight attendant said that CAL loses about $2 million a year on the IAH-EFD flights. Something they make up for by having passengers book connecting flights in IAH to other destinations. CAL use to run 737’s from IAH to HOU (Hobby) which is an even shorter distance than IAH-EFD. They pulled out of there a few years ago probably realizing that it was cheaper to fly in and out of EFD.
Once we stop flights to EFD we will be resuming flights out of Houston-Hobby but not to IAH, those flights will be to the Cleveland and Newark hubs. I guess the benefit of free tickets from the local airports isn’t cost effective anymore.
By: Whiskey Delta - 2nd May 2004 at 19:12
Well, that might have been the reason when that happened almost 10 years ago but since then CAL and now XJet have been focusing on the Central America routes. The West coast has been basically ignored. Looking at the route maps it’s quite apparent. There has been a lot of hope that we’d expand more out West, perhaps even with a hub but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
They say this is a current route map as of Feb. 1st but with a quick look I see that there are some current routes missing. Close enough I guess.
By: T5 - 2nd May 2004 at 19:10
Why do people fly such short distances? By the time you have checked in for the flight and then disembarked and passed through the destination airport, wouldn’t it have taken at least 3 or 4 times as long as going by road?
By: greekdude1 - 2nd May 2004 at 18:35
Our West coast presence is pretty weak. It’s slowly growing but not nearly what we’d like it to be.
Closing down the DEN hub once they moved from Stapleton to D.I.A. is a major reason for this, I would think.
By: A330Crazy - 2nd May 2004 at 18:29
Great shots WD. 😎
By: Whiskey Delta - 2nd May 2004 at 14:46
Do they still have the ‘Micronesia’ subsidiary?
Yes, with the hub being located at GUM. We cover the US pretty good but most of our domestic flying is East of the Rocky Mtns. Our West coast presence is pretty weak. It’s slowly growing but not nearly what we’d like it to be.
Those short trips must be a ball. Did you hand fly the whole flight???
Yes, all 6-7 minutes worth. 🙂 The non-flying pilot is pretty busy which keeps them from taking in the view. All I did was maintain 1 heading and 1 altitude until beginning the approach. I had a blast.
By: Bmused55 - 2nd May 2004 at 14:26
that certainly is a short flight WD!
Thanks once again for your contribution.
Keep em rolling in folks!
Skycruiser…. LOVE those panel shots! the 747 panel kicks a$$!
By: skycruiser - 2nd May 2004 at 14:21
WD,
Those short trips must be a ball. Did you hand fly the whole flight???
By: greekdude1 - 2nd May 2004 at 09:15
Again, the term ‘everywhere’ is very broad. All the U.S. majors, for the most part, fly ‘everywhere.’ We have lots of big airports in the U.S.
By: Airline owner - 2nd May 2004 at 09:13
i mean they fly everywhere because that would be a wee bit expensive for annual hub costs
By: greekdude1 - 2nd May 2004 at 09:11
“Everywhere in the U.S.” is a vast region. CO have hubs at EWR, IAH, and Cleveland, so I don’t think that qualifies as everywhere. They have decent non-hub operations at other airports, like LAX, for instance. Do they still have the ‘Micronesia’ subsidiary?
By: Airline owner - 2nd May 2004 at 09:00
good job WD.
has continental got a hub almost anywhere in the US because they certainly seem to fly everywhere
By: greekdude1 - 2nd May 2004 at 08:53
That route sounds similar to ONT-LAX. Flight time is listed as 30 minutes on the schedules, but it’s actually 10-12 minutes in the air, as it is only 47 miles. Altitude is no more than 5000 and you could see all of Southern Cal on a clear day, which is rare. 😉
By: starjet - 2nd May 2004 at 03:47
Good job
By: Whiskey Delta - 2nd May 2004 at 02:53
A picture of a FMS screen is pretty boring so I’ll throw in a few others to make the effort to view this thread worth it. 😀
Here are 2 757 pictures which are sure to please.
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May 2, 2004 at 2:51 am