https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_economy_in_aircraft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_economy_in_aircraft Modern airliners approach 100mpg per seat. About

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_economy_in_aircraft https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_economy_in_aircraft Modern airliners approach 100mpg per seat. About the same as four people in the average American car (25mpg at four people is 100mpg per seat). Compared to say, your average truck driver (like, 10? 15?), it's absolutely spectacular. A good European train can technically do 400-500mpg per seat, so 4-5x, but load factors tend to be much lower, I believe around 80-85% for planes vs 40-50% for intercity trains. Given that then, in the real world conventional trains are about 2-3x more efficient than planes. High speed trains lose a significant amount of that advantage - can't beat physics (air resistance). At the end of the day, long distance travel is simply expensive however you cut the cookie. There's nothing particularly special about air travel.