Because the government has massively increased the costs of flying.
Airport Monopolies
In most cities there is one major international airport. It is typically far away from downtown and the hub for almost all flights in and out of a city. Entrepreneurs can’t just start an airport because the government typically has a monopoly on the business. So cities build one or maybe two airports way on the outskirts of the city where you have to take a lot of time to get there and pay for a costly taxi or Uber ride.
Cumbersome Safety Rules
Once you get to the airport, you have to go through a long and uncomfortable security check and then typically spend 15 or more minutes travel through the labyrinth of terminals to get to the place where you flight is actually leaving from.
Fees and Taxes
On top of the time costs added by the suburban mega-airports, you have to pay for expensive fees and taxes on your flight. The airport monopoly uses their position to charge high prices for airlines to use their gates and charge you an expensive airport improvement fee on every ticket. Then you have to pay for the “security” that slowed you down in getting to your gate. You will typically find that 50% of your flight is made up of government fees and taxes.
What could air travel look like?
As a result of the time and financial cost, in most major cities, you need to leave home 1.5 to 2 hours before your flight and pay $50 or more (often much more) in fees and taxes on every flight. Once you arrive you have to walk for 15min+ to actually get out of the airport and then sit in a car for 30+ minutes to actually get to the city. These time and financial costs make it almost impossible for airlines to run profitable flights to places that are less than a 3-hour drive or bus ride away.
What if instead, we lived in a world where airports weren’t monopolized government monstrosities? You could imagine it makes sense to have a large hub airport for international flights, but also very small airports exist in different areas or a city where small planes run local flights. Where you can take a short taxi and arrive 30 minutes in advance for a <200-mile flight to a close large city. Once you arrive you are actually close to the part of the city that you are flying to.
Since these smaller and more numerous airports would service smaller planes, there would be fewer issues with noise disturbing the surrounding neighborhood. But since airlines and airports would have to bear the costs of disturbing local communities they would have large incentives to innovate ways to minimize the noise and disturbances that come from flights.
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