Ryanair does Stansted – Leipzig.
Of course there are itineraries where GA beats CAT significantly on time. However, that advantage has greatly diminished over the last decade with the explosion of CAT connections and the drop in airfares. There used to be a time where flying a Cheyenne was not more expensive than airline transport which didn’t get you in many places. That is over and will never come back.
Just as a data point: over the last year, I’ve made just over 100 flights totalling about 170 hours on business.
I am based at Cambridge and principal destinations for multiple flights have been Prestwick, Biggin Hill, Monchengladbach (for Düßeldorf) and Ingolstadt, with single flights to Basel, Saarbrücken, Strasbourg (2), Münster, Leeds Bradford and Cumbernauld.
These are mostly short visits, either in and out same day or perhaps two days at each destination, and I can not claim that doing this is comparable in cost terms to flying commercial unless the trip involves multiple destinations that are not well served by the commercial ops, thus allowing me to do a sort of tour, or I have colleagues with me. That said, I would find it very much more taxing physically and mentally to have to cope with the hassle involved with trying to do this level of short visit travelling commercially or by car. The other obvious benefit is the timetable flexibility that this allows.
It would be interesting to know what kind of business people are doing on these trips.
If you are visiting a supplier or going to a conference/exhibition (etc) then the whole thing is a lot easier and stuff like weather comes into it much less. The most difficult thing is visiting new/potential customers. In between, you have a whole spectrum e.g. a customer who is a friend of yours.
This context is important because somebody flying to visit exhibitions could easily achieve a 100% despatch rate while flying 100% legit business expense trips 
I used to do some business trips, years ago, often in a scenario where the car drive was 6-9 hours while the flight would be 1:10. Despite cheap airline flights, that is still posible today because some parts of the UK are very poor and a lot of companies set up in them because there were generous incentives (back before the EU banned that sort of thing) but the road connections remain poor. Much of Wales is in that category.
Most of mine is visiting companies I work with as well some supplier / sales stuff as well.
In terms of despatch rates, I only lost one flight last year to weather and never flew in any conditions that a current IR holder would consider remotely dangerous.
Ryanair does Stansted – Leipzig.
Yes, on Tuesdays and Thursdays leaving the UK at 1920 and leaving Leipzig at 2239. At best it allows a 3 day turnaround!
The other thing is that cheap airlines aren’t cheap if you go at a short notice.
A while ago I had a reason to look at Ryanair prices from Pula to (the inevitable, and a very long way from where I live) Stansted, and they were 300 quid. That is similar to a TB20 flight with 2 people.
If you have a rough guess at what it costs to fly a 737 or similar say 700nm, you arrive at an average ticket cost of about 150 quid just to break even.
But I completely agree with the sentiments here that it is never really a way to save money. Save time certainly, but there is an element of fun which can’t be ignored.
there is an element of fun which can’t be ignored.
That is why I am constantly looking out for an electronics exhibition on one of the Adriatic or Greek islands
The nearest I have thus far seen was a coil winding machinery exhibition in Berlin, which doesn’t quite cut the mustard (no pun intended on account of the food which is going to be crap even by the standards of that part of N Europe ) even though these guys are clearly having a great time.
Just as a data point: over the last year, I’ve made just over 100 flights totalling about 170 hours on business.
@Jonzarno seems to confirm what I’m about to try for myself.
That said, I would find it very much more taxing physically and mentally to have to cope with the hassle involved with trying to do this level of short visit travelling commercially or by car. The other obvious benefit is the timetable flexibility that this allows.
That is precisely my hypothesis. All the need to always be vigilant about time and next steps in order not to miss a connection or something else wrecks havoc on your mental well-being. Gets you confused and uncomfortable and at the end you feel exhausted without having done much physically. It is a weird feeling.
That all goes away when you are on your own schedule and in control of the means of transportation. The only issue I still see is the task of preparing the flight. If for an IFR flyer the weather is challenging it might be best to put off all and any thoughts about it until you are done with business and ready to head out to the airport. If you decide to not go, then book another night at the hotel.
@Jonzarno what has been your tactic so far for trips with a total trip time of under 4 hours? Have you left in the morning for doing business in the afternoon or did you arrive the evening before?
Currently I’m leaning towards traveling to the business location in the morning (take off around 9 am) and start working there after lunch. Mostly that means around 2pm.
For the flight back or on to the next destination I would use the next morning instead of doing a night flight. That has also do with the opening hours of airports (in Germany). I would fly back after business on the same day, if it is possible to be at my final destination before 8 pm or 9 pm, if it is home and I am free the next day.
