The journey by plane from New York to Houston today takes about 4 hours. The same trip in 1973 took about two and a half hours.
From London to Edinburgh, the flight today takes 10 minutes longer than twenty years ago, from Madrid to Barcelona 20 minutes, and the same number of passengers must fly from New York to Chicago.
A logical question arises – how is it that in an age of increasing technical progress, flights are becoming longer rather than shorter?
There are several reasons for this, but the most important is certainly the rise in oil prices. In the past, a gallon cost 70 cents, and once it cost 3 dollars.
Companies have then realized that they have to fly slower if they want to continue to generate the planned revenues, which automatically means that they have to save fuel.
The actual savings are quite large, and so it was published that in 2008 the American airline Jetble saved $13.6 million by extending each of its flights by only 2 minutes.
Four years ago, information leaked to the public that Ryanair also instructed its pilots to extend each flight by two minutes. Of course, Ryanair saves quite a bit of money on an annual basis.
