An air shuttle is a scheduled airline service on short routes with a simplified fare and class structure. No exact definition exists, but frequency is usually hourly or more often and travel time is typically an hour or less. Network airlines may operate shuttle services as one-class or no-frill services, similar to low-cost airlines.
Some shuttles are established by governments, businesses, or organizations which require a high level of service in an otherwise thin corridor. For example, the Federal Aviation Administration's William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, New Jersey operates an air shuttle to ferry FAA employees to and from Reagan National Airport (DCA) near Washington, DC four days a week.
Certain dense markets may support commercial shuttles. The pioneer service was the Eastern Air Shuttle, which offered no-frills, hourly flights connecting LaGuardia Airport in New York City with Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts. Present-day commercial air shuttle services include:
- US Airways Shuttle
- Delta Shuttle
- Horizon Air service between Seattle Tacoma International Airport and Portland International Airport
- Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways service between Tokyo (Tokyo International Airport, Narita International Airport) and Osaka (Osaka International Airport, Kansai International Airport, Kobe Airport) in Japan
- Air Canada RapidAir service between Toronto and Montreal as well as Toronto and Ottawa in Canada
- TAM, GOL and Varig's Ponte Aérea (Air Bridge) service between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
- Iberia Puente Aéreo service between Madrid and Barcelona in Spain every 30 minutes.
- Air France La Navette service offers 80 flights a day from Paris-Orly Airport to Marseille, Bordeaux, Nice, and Toulouse, with a flight every 30–60 minutes. This service is used by more than 5.6 million travellers every year.
- Qantas and QantasLink 'CityFlyer' service offers flights between major Australian capital cities on weekdays, with complimentary alcoholic afternoon drinks, newspapers, flexible fares and more frequent schedules.
- Korean Air, Asiana Airlines and other minor Korean airlines' service between Gimpo International Airport and Jeju International Airport. The busiest air route in Asia.
- Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines and Silkair code-share a Kuala Lumpur- Singapore shuttle every hour.
- Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) and Norwegian Air Shuttle provide a shuttle service between the Norwegian airports of Oslo Airport, Gardermoen and Bergen Airport, Flesland; Trondheim Airport, Værnes and Stavanger Airport, Sola with up to 30-minute headways.
- SAS also has a shuttle on the triangular route between Oslo Airport, Gardermoen (Norway), Stockholm-Arlanda Airport (Sweden) and Copenhagen Airport (Denmark) with up to hourly headways.
- The routes between Hong Kong and Taipei, Taiwan (Republic of China), and between Hong Kong and Bangkok, Thailand, are served by multiple carriers providing frequent service with frequency less than an hour during day time.
The busiest air routes in the world involve pairs of large cities in close proximity that rely on air transport due to a lack of High Speed Rail, and the distance is large enough to discourage car driving. Several of the airports are on islands without road connection to the mainland.
Famous quotes containing the words air and/or shuttle:
“The air is precious to the red man, for all things share the same breath—the beast, the tree, the man, they all share the same breath. The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like a man dying for many days, he is numb to the stench.”
—Attributed to Seattle (c. 1784–1866)
“And the shuttle never falters, but to draw an encouraging conclusion
From this would be considerable, too odd. Why not just
Breathe in with the courage of each day, recognizing yourself as one
Who must with difficulty get down from high places?”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)