Fly vs. Drive

Since we’re on the road today anyway, let’s take a moment to consider the ages-old question of should we fly or drive to our destination? Back in our salad days, when gasoline was under $1 a gallon and you could get on an airplane with as much bottled water as you wanted (without taking off your shoes, belt, or undergarments in the process), the trade-off was simple: flying was faster, driving was cheaper. Thus, if you needed to get where you were going quickly, or if your idea of a fun time does not include days of highway driving, you would fly to your destination; otherwise you might drive. But under the current conditions, this is no longer a given…

First, let’s consider the trip we’re currently on. It’s about 2200 miles from LA to Lansing, or about 34 hours of road time at 65 mph; this does not, of course, include time for food, refueling or rest stops, let alone sleeping. If you’re willing to drive for 17 hours a day you could do it in two days, but most of us would take four. If we assume $150 per night for hotels and 20 miles per gallon of gas (both optimistic under present conditions), we are talking about at least $950 for the trip, not counting food or other needs. We should probably allow another $300 or so for routine maintenance on the vehicle, since 2200 miles is most of a service cycle, and this will be hard use (2200 miles in four days). Allowing for food and other necessities, it’s going to be somewhere on the order of $1,400 to make the trip…

If I’m traveling alone, this does not compare well to the $309 I’ll pay for a ticket with 2 stops (Las Vegas and Chicago, for example) or even to the $825 I’ll pay for one stop in Chicago. It doesn’t even compare well with flying to Chicago and renting a car for the rest of the way. If I’m traveling with a companion, however, it would be at least $600 and more likely $900 to fly with 2 stops, and $1,700 to fly with 1 stop – no longer a clear advantage to the airlines. And if I’ve got three people with me, it’s going to be at least $1,400 to fly, and more likely $3,200 – advantage car. Although flying is still faster…

Now let’s take a shorter example. It’s about 680 miles from East Lansing to New York City; a drive that will take all day (about 10 hours+) and cost about $150 in gas, and let’s say $100 in repair costs. If we fly through Cincinnati (there are no direct flights to or from Lansing to either coast) the cost will be $242, and the trip will take a bit over 6 hours – if the planes are on time. But this time factor does not consider having to be at the airport 2 hours before your plane leaves, or the time it takes getting from East Lansing to the Capital City Airport (10 minutes) or the time it takes getting from JFK to Manhattan (90 minutes or more). If I’m by myself, the price difference is a wash; if I’m traveling with anyone the car trip is significantly cheaper, just as you would expect. What is bizarre is that with the common delays in air travel and the need to change planes, the car trip DOES NOT take any longer…

Even worse, from where I’m sitting (which today is the driver’s seat of a Pontiac Torrent), is the surcharge we would face getting all of this cargo onto an airplane. With most U.S. carriers now charging extra for each checked bag, we’d be looking at another $300 to $900 in fees, assuming they’d let us check this much baggage in the first place, which they probably wouldn’t. This might not apply on a weekend trip to see my folks in New York, but it would definitely apply to the voyage we are currently undertaking…

The bottom line is that even the current gas crisis has not changed the equation all that much. It’s still cheaper to drive, and in the post 9/11 landscape, it isn’t always faster to fly, either. Which would make me feel a lot better if the price of gasoline wasn’t still rocketing up…