When Your Airbus is Actually…A Bus

You booked a flight through a major airline, departing from a small-town airport in rural USA on what you assume to be a regional carrier on a commuter jet. Probably an Airbus-319 or 320. You might even be seated next to a cow or a chicken…you know how those farm country regional airlines work. As long as it isn’t a pig, you’re just happy to be in the air and not on the road. Your first stop is a major hub maybe 150 or so miles away, where you connect with a plane operated by the major airline.

You get to the airport, check in for your flight, drop your checked luggage, exchange comments with the airline agent on the latest crop yield estimates and weather reports, then look up your flight number to find the departure gate. You’re a little curious when you see that it directs you to Parking Lot B, but you don’t question it. Airlines don’t know nothin’ about growing corn and you don’t know nothin’ about flying planes.

So…you make your way to parking lot B and there’s a red carpet leading to a motorcoach. A fella dressed in an official looking airport uniform, coveralls with reflective yellow safety stripes, is directing you to board the motorcoach. That’s about the time it dawns on you…you ain’t flying on no Airbus…you’re riding on a bus bus. Your first thought is to hope they seat the cows, pigs, and chickens in the back of the bus.

As bizarre as that may sound, I’m, not making it up. Well, maybe the cow, pigs and chicken part…but the rest is real, and it happens every day at a handful of small airports around the country.

Major and regional airlines are increasingly contracting with a company called Landline to provide luxury bus transfer service between small local airports and the nearest major hub. Bus transfers are integrated with the airline’s schedule, to include getting a faux flight number, which means it is easy to mistake a bus transfer for a short commuter hop. The boarding pass for the bus transfer does have “bus” printed on it, but it in small print and since it also has a faux flight number, it is easy to overlook the fact that your commuter hop is on a bus rather than an Airbus.

The practice of using bus transfers allows major airlines, and some regional airlines, to provide service to low population density areas where operating even a small commuter flight is cost prohibitive. On these flights from local airports to a major hub, the short commuter hops are often money losers rather money makers. Airlines often can’t fill a regional commuter plane, but they can usually fill a 20-person bus or a full-sized motorcoach. The problem of offering connecting air service from small airports to major hubs has been exacerbated by the current pilot shortage. According to Aviation Week, the bus transfer practice “allows smaller communities to maintain connectivity with major hubs despite reductions in regional air service.” Bus transfer service has been contracted out to the same luxury bus company, Landline, by all airlines that offer the service.

Major airlines who have turned to Landline for luxury motorcoach transfers in lieu of commuter flights include American, Delta, and United, as well as the regional carrier Sun Country. The practice can be a win-win. For passengers it can be more time efficient to take a bus instead of a commuter flight. Check-in is more time efficient, you don’t spend time taxing at take-off and landing and you don’t have to wait for a gate upon arrival. And you don’t have to spend as much time boarding and deboarding a bus as you do an airplane. Even a small commuter plane takes time to load and unload since passengers are often slow to stow and then recover their carry-on luggage.

The bus ride is often only slightly longer than a commuter flight, and what little time you lose by driving instead of flying is made up for by the efficiency of checking in for the bus ride. And since the check-in counter is outside the security zone, you don’t go through the TSA security screening until you arrive at the major airport hub. Small local airports often have just a few TSA agents and security screening can take longer than at a major hub where there is a large number of TSA screening agents. Plus, at the major hub you have the option of using TSA Pre-check and CLEAR to cut down on your wait time even further.

You still check in for the bus and connecting flights at the local airport and you drop your checked luggage at the local airport check-in counter as well. And since you don’t go through security, you only need to arrive at the local airport 30-45 minutes prior to the scheduled bus departure rather than the recommended 2 hours for domestic flights and 3 hours for international flights at major airports.

Once you’ve dropped your luggage at the check-in counter, you board the bus. Airport employees load your luggage onto the motorcoach and away you go to the closest major airport hub. When you arrive at the hub you get off the bus, enter the terminal building, and at that point you pass through TSA security screening. The motorcoaches’ departures are coordinated with your connecting flight to give you sufficient time to get through the TSA checkpoint and get to your gate. Your luggage is automatically transferred from the bus to your flight by airport employees at the major hub.

If your trip involves an international destination you will have to show your passport twice, once at the originating local airport, and again at the departure gate after you get off the bus and clear the TSA security screening.

American Airlines uses bus transfers to get passengers to and from Philadelphia’s international airport from three local airports. United Airlines uses bus transfers to get passengers to and from Newark’s international airport from two local airports. Delta provides the bus transfer service from multiple small local airports as well, but they haven’t published a list. The regional carrier Sun Country provides service to Minneapolis/St. Paul from five local airports. Bus drive times are typically between 90 minutes to 2 ½ hours. The longest bus route is with Sun Country Airlines at just over 3 ½ hours.

This trend reflects a growing adaptation in the aviation industry, where airlines are leveraging ground transportation to maintain service levels in smaller markets while addressing operational challenges. Here is a link to a website that shows where the airlines use the bus transfer service from local airport to major hub.The service is expanding so this list may not be curret even as soon as next week.

So if you are flying out of a small local airport, don’t be surprised if your connecting “flight’ is a bus rather than an airbus. And don’t worry…you wont be seated next to any farm animals on the bus. Unless it happens to be someone’s comfort animal. The airlines are still rather loose with their definition of what constitutes a comfort animal, but I’m pretty sure cows don’t qualify. Not so sure about pigs and chickens though.