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Comment by StavrosK | Hacker News Reader

> single-day business trips between two major business centers which were otherwise a full day apart.

Was the LON-NYC flight time the problem, though? I think that to go door-to-door right now you spend 50% of the time in the air and the other 50% on the ground.

With this company, you'll be spending 3.5 hours in the air and 8 hours getting to and from airports and through security.

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It depends on the airport that you are travelling from. London City has famously fast security, currently you can check-in upto 15 minutes before the scheduled time of departure for a flight to New York. [1]

[1] http://www.londoncityairport.com/travelandbooking/page/check...

When flying in from Amsterdam that 'famously fast security' takes more time than the actual flight.

Vastly expidited security lines have been available for purchase for a while. It's not even that expensive. Pre, Global Entry, etc.

I would think that the people that can afford this have Uber helicopter service to/from the airport and all the line skipping extras paid for already. Not sure it is really 8 hours to and from airports/security.

Right. Selling at this price point they can easily focus on expensive extras. Special terminal with super fast security, then really quick transfers in both ends. If you could do a small airport experience in both ends (1h from hotel room to liftoff) they can charge what they want.

At one point in New York, it was pretty routine for first class passengers on Pan Am to take a helicopter from JFK to the Pan Am building, which had a helipad on the roof. The service may even have been included as part of the fare. (This service was discontinued after an accident though, at least for a time, I believe there was still service to a helipad next to the East River.)

There are still several services providing service to JFK from Manhattan helipads. Blade is one example: https://www.flyblade.com/

This was business travelers who would all already have precheck or whatever it's called.

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