Hell, it’s cheaper and faster to fly from Zurich or Munich to Hamburg via Barcelona, London or Dublin.
But why though?
Air travel is heavily subsidised, especially through very very very favourable tax rates on aviation fuel
Direct flights between airports that don’t serve as hubs for any airline are generally focused on business travel. If you fly via some airlines hub airport you can get cheaper tickets as the flights are more focused on stuffing as many people into a plane as possible.
I’m not sure it’s like this everywhere, but many airlines are more focused on financial products (like credit cards) for profit than flights. Here’s something about it, no guarantee of quality, but it’s enough to get the general idea: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/09/airlines-banks-mileage-programs/675374/
Those price discrepancies are genuinely shocking
There is also a hidden cost from the tracks.
A rail track of 3m for 100km used for solar cells would generate enough electricity to transport 37500 passengers per plane.
Solar cells generate 2kWp per 10 square meters, which are 2MWh per year which is 5kWh per day.
300sqkm generate 150MWh per day.
4l kerosine per pessenger per 100km are about 40kWh.
150MWh are enough for 37500 passengers.
It’s not renewable but influences the economics.
It’a apples to oranges. Pricing policies are different. Only few get the cheapest airline tickets.
*shocked pickachu
How do you need a study for that?!
I understand why you write this, but collecting data is the first step when you want to change something.
Even if a femomenon sounds obvious, maybe it is not. Moreover the study analyses also why this happens, and it is pretty interesting.
Which is cheaper:
- lift 50 tons of metal off the ground burning 20,000 liters of fuel
- make 50 tons of metal run over the ground using electricity
How is this obvious?
In order to find out the intricacies of WHY, yes.
See, studies are not there to show something is true. They are there to have a scientifically proven analysis as a base.
It’s like when you are at work and everyone knows that meeting xy is inefficient. However, your boss still needs data and a slide deck to present hard facts to the management board.
For cross border routes only 45.9% were always cheaper by plane and for domestic ones only 15.2%.
