Jay Honeck writes:

Agree. (This is the same problem, BTW, that is addressed by private
aircraft. It's the reason we can easily beat the airlines to Florida
from Iowa, even though I'm only flying at 160 mph.)

If commercial flights were as easy as flights in a private plane (and they
once were, although they aren't now), I'd still be finding excuses to fly from
place to place, as flying itself is fun. But flying is only the tip of the
iceberg nowadays, and the rest of the overhead completely erases the fun of
flight on a commercial airliner.

When I was a boy, people in Iowa City routinely flew United and Ozark
Air Lines to anywhere in the country. This was possible because the
US Air Mail paid the airlines to fly mail to hundreds of smaller
airports, like Iowa City -- and the passengers were literally just
gravy. (They broke even whether they carried passengers or not.)

Some commercial airline flights are the same way, depending on the route.