I’m interested in older airplanes, and all over sites like [airliners.net](https://airliners.net), you’ll see aircraft that are described as “being used on commuter services” ([example](https://www.airliners.net/photo/Comair/Embraer-EMB-110-Bandeirante/2472380?qsp=eJwljTsKwzAQRO8ytYoY2YGozAXiIk3KRVpsg2OJ1QZijO%2BeRenm85g5EPOm/NXnXhgBlUniDIdCQu%2BKcBjw2VR2hKEbHISnJW8IXe8d1hxJm/X%2B0t8caha9G4pEyuOcNU9CZeb0sl38%2B4ckFkOoxvYz2W9ngmVsGv5qeVpqWalNsdKy4jx/S1E4Tw%3D%3D)). How did aircraft-based commutes work?
While I understand the airlines’ approach of using small, cheap, medium-speed turboprops to transport people directly between airports (instead of the hub-and-spoke model where you’d use larger planes), how did people get to and from the airports? Did they just own two cars? Would companies have vans to shuttle their personnel between their offices and the airport? And what was left of a day after driving to the airport, checking in, flying, being transported to your office, working, and returning through the same hassle?
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Park and rides, shuttles, a spouse/family member dropped them off, or the airport offers parking (or third party, off-site parking).
Whenever I take a turboprop from a small airport (which I used to do but haven’t in like 10 years now) the process was super simple and quick, almost as easy as taking a bus. Just like you’d take a bus into ny, you could hop on a plane from Augusta to Raleigh ezpz.
Maybe 15 years ago I worked at a hotel with people who would fly into our local airport, pick up a rental car and stay with us for 3 or 4 nights before flying back home. They would actually leave their luggage with us while they went home so they usually just had a single bag to take on the plane.
Occasionally there would be someone who would fly in in the morning and fly home at night, but that was a pretty rare thing
I’d guess it wasn’t a daily commute, but instead regular travel between cities for work. I wonder if they’re using the word commute slightly differently than it’s used now.
I had a coworker about 5 years ago who commuted by plane. He was a pilot. He owned a house in Maine, flew himself down to Massachusetts every week for 2 to 4 days in the office, slept in a spare room he rented from a friend, and flew back to Maine to work from home the rest of the week. He owned cars at both ends of the trip. That’s the only commuting by plane I’ve run into.
Back in the day before the hub and spoke model you had larger aircraft servicing smaller cities. For example let’s say you had a flight going from Dallas to Atlanta; now that flight would go direct from DFW to ATL nonstop. But 40 years ago a 727 would leave Dallas, stop in Shreveport, Louisiana, Tupelo, Mississippi and Montgomery, Alabama before finally making it to Atlanta. So if you had to commute from Tupelo, MS to Atlanta you’d get on that flight and just sit on the plane during the stopover in Alabama. The advent of mega hubs (like Dallas and Atlanta would turn into), regional jets, turbo props coupled with airline deregulation and regional airlines led to the hub and spoke model.
Even on some cross country routes that same model was used. I saw a timetable where a DC-10 left JFK and stopped in Cleveland, Kansas City, Denver and Reno before going to San Francisco.
usually it would be more along the lines of working in one city during the week and flying home for the weekend
>And what was left of a day
*Commuter* doesn’t necessarily mean fly in and out on the same day.
> How did aircraft-based commutes work?
At my current employer sometimes we have to “commute” to a distant location on a company plane. In that case you drive to the small regional airport where we have a hangar, park your car, hop on the plane, fly out, arrive, rental cars have already been set up by the FBO, drive to whatever you’re doing, drive back and return the rental, hop back on the plane and fly home. It makes for a long day if it’s a one-day show but I’ve done it.
It’s *vastly* less hassle than a commercial airport though. No security or any of that. You can literally go from parking your car to taxiing for takeoff in like 5-10 minutes. Or likewise land at the end of the day and you’re in your car and off before the whole plane has de-boarded.
Alternatively, if you were commuting into any sort of metro area one can assume public transportation is a thing. You can commute on a major airline; leave the east coast of the US at night, arrive LHR first thing in the morning, get to whatever business thing you have by public transit, fly back and get home that same night as you “rewind the clock” flying west.
I believe a lot of airline crews commute as well. Like if you were a Delta pilot living around Charlotte you might take a short hop CLT-ATL first thing, work a day of flights in and out of ATL, then back ATL-CLT late.
I “commuted” to D. C. For a year.
I would fly in on Monday, stay in a hotel, and fly out on Friday.
It’s a TOUGH way to live but I actually really loved it. Getting to spend that much time in a cool city, still seeing friends and family at home.
Funny story, I had to request that the hotel give me rooms always on the same side of the hotel because I got so used to it that when they put me on the opposite side one time I woke up in the night to go to the bathroom and ran smack into a wall (bathroom was on the wrong side of the room).
Some business executives or big law partners will live in the city they work during the week and fly home on the weekend.
They don’t mean those are for daily commutes. Its a weird term, now that you have made me think about it.
Its just they are outside of the typical hub and spoke model, as you identified.
They are, however, closer to a charter style flight.
Your example brings back some memories.
Some people work as traveling consultants, with your home in one city and your project work in a different one.
Your company would try to keep you in the same region, so the flight timings wouldn’t be too terrible. So I’d take airplanes like that Embraer via Midwest Express on about an hour or so flight to the city where your project was. You’d stay for the week and return home on a similar airplane for the weekend. And that was your “commute”. It wasn’t daily, but weekly.
“Commuter Airlines” is a dated term for regional airlines, which are small airlines that operate small planes, such a CRJ or turboprop, on regular routes from tiny regional airports to the larger hub “international” airports. They are not meant for daily workers to commute, but they allow people to connect to the air travel network from more remote locations.
I work at an airplane manufacturer, there’s one guy who works here that owns a small plane. He takes off from what’s essentially his back yard every day, lands on our company’s runway, and then flies back home.
Expensive as hell, but very cool.
through the air ??
“Commuter” in this sense mostly means you go into the city for at least the week, rather than every day.
Most major cities have connections to their transit systems, such that they are, at the airport. Where that’s lacking they would need to grab a cab to somewhere in walking distance of where they would be for the rest of the week.