4 ms·

And frequency/throughput. At peak hours, the Shinkansen can depart about every two minutes(!). I would regularly step into the train station five minutes before

And frequency/throughput. At peak hours, the Shinkansen can depart about every two minutes(!). I would regularly step into the train station five minutes before my departure. Or just buy a ticket at the station when I get there, with no reservation, since I know the trains come so often I won't have to wait long. How long do you have to wait if you miss your flight? How certain are you of an on-time arrival? How early do you arrive at the airport, to make sure you'll catch your plane?

bluGill 5y ago
At one time (before 9/11) you could walk into the airport in Minneapolis and be in the air to Chicago in 20 minutes (airplanes left every 15 minutes), buy your ticket at the gate. Of course this is a busy route and the airline decided it was worth running empty seats to ensure it could happen. There is no technical reason airplanes couldn't do this for any city pair. There are reasons that airplanes don't operate this way, but they are not because it is technically impossible. Politically you can't get rid of the security theater, and yield management probably is the most profitable way to run airplanes, but both could change if we wanted to.