Door-to-door travel time
Private vs. commercial, door to door. Real drive, security, boarding, and deplane time — not just the airborne segment.
How we calculate these times
These aren't back-of-the-napkin estimates. The tool reflects how each travel mode actually plays out door-to-door.
Drive times are user inputs — pre-filled with reasonable defaults (30 minutes to a major commercial hub, 15 minutes to a closer FBO) that you can override. The comparison between airports is the meaningful figure: if your nearest FBO is 12 miles away but the commercial hub is 35 miles away, that delta is real every time you fly.
Commercial airport timescales with airport size — a major hub like ATL, JFK, or LAX adds ~125 minutes of ground time (TSA, gate, boarding, deplane, bag claim); a mid-size hub adds ~95; a small regional ~65. These are realistic averages, not the published "2 hours early" airline guidance.
Commercial flight timeuses a 460 KTAS proxy plus 25 minutes of taxi and ATC slack. We don't model BTS T-100 data on this site, so very congested routes (transcons in winter, etc.) may underestimate slightly.
Private flight timeuses verified cruise speeds and range specs by aircraft category, with realistic climb and descent buffers. If the route exceeds the aircraft's range, we add a 45-minute fuel stop.
Private ground experienceis a 15-minute FBO check-in on departure and a 10-minute walk-to-car on arrival. That's how charter actually works — no TSA queue, no bag carousel, no boarding zones.
Frequently asked questions
How much time does flying private actually save?
Industry studies put the average at around two hours saved door-to-door on domestic routes — most of it comes from not arriving 2-3 hours early at a hub for TSA and boarding, and from being able to use a closer airport with a 15-minute FBO check-in. On very short hops with no airport drive advantage, the savings shrink.
Why does commercial flight time differ from private flight time on the same route?
Private and commercial jets cruise at similar speeds. Commercial flights add more taxi time at congested hubs and often route around weather more conservatively. Most of the door-to-door delta comes from ground experience, not airborne time.
How accurate are the drive times?
We use minute-level inputs you control — pre-filled with reasonable defaults (30 minutes to a major hub, 15 minutes to an FBO) but you can override them with your own commute estimates. Traffic varies; the comparison between airports is the meaningful number.
What's an FBO?
A Fixed Base Operator — the private terminal at an airport. You drive past it on the way to the airline terminal but probably haven't been inside. FBOs handle check-in for charter passengers in under 15 minutes; you walk from the lobby to the aircraft.