There's a lot of daily air traffic on the East Coast. Boston, NYC, Baltimore/Washington, Atlanta, Jacksonville, Orlando, Miami. There should be a service that just continually hits all these cities in order, like stops on a bus route. Pay by the stop, or get a full-service ticket that allows you to fly anytime. OOPS, missed my plane, I don't worry, there will be another one by in 90 minutes.

At each end of the line (Boston and Miami) the planes are switched out for maintenance, restocking, refueling, crew changes. Cost will be $40 for the first station, and $25 for each additional station, or $200 to fly unlimited for 48 hours.

To use the service, travelers will not need to purchase advance tickets - they will simply "show up" and pay the fare and show the proper ID. There can be no checked baggage, you are allowed 1 carry on and 1 personal item (briefcase, handbag, backpack, etc.)

This would be a boon to air commuters and short-term travelers. Maybe you live in Atlanta and just want to go to Boston for a baseball game? The airline could add to their bottom line by transporting air cargo (lots of room, remember no checked baggage.)

This is not to say that it couldn't work in the West also (Seattle, Portland, Reno, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego.)
-- Silence, Apr 28 2004

Horizon Airlines http://horizonair.a...dule/schedinput.asp
their motto: "You aren't late for your flight, you're just early for the next flight" [Klaatu, Oct 04 2004]

Other than the no-luggage part and the lower fares, this is almost exactly baked. Planes generally run on schedules. They generally make more than one stop. You generally can purchase a ticket right before your flight, unless it's full.
-- Worldgineer, Apr 28 2004


The service noted here would land, stay at the terminal just long enough to discharge and load passengers, and take off. It would be very cut-rate. I forgot to mention that all passengers would receive their flight instructions on the ground (here's the seatbelt, oxygen mask, emergency exit.) Also, if you purchased a $200 ticket, you could ride at will for 48 hours from issue. And if there is nobody deplaning at a specific station, and no new tickets out of that station, the plane could skip a station, so the schedule would be a bit skewed, thus requiring more frequency of flights.
-- Silence, Apr 28 2004


What World said. How does this differ from what services like JetBlue already do?
-- waugsqueke, Apr 28 2004


Baked with Horizon Airlines (code share with Alaska Airlines)<link>. During peak times, they have flights departing every 5 minutes to all destinations in the Pacific Northwest. Free Starbuck's Coffee and a local paper on every flight. They fly Dash 8's that can land in the Pacific Northwest fogs, when other airlines are grounded.

You check your bags at the door of the aircraft and electronic ticketing is standard.
-- Klaatu, Apr 29 2004


The airline would have to charge more for tickets since some planes would be fairly empty. Other planes would be overcrowded, forcing people to wait for hours.
-- sninctown, Jun 04 2006



random, halfbakery