A domestic flight is a form of
commercial flight
Commercial aviation is the part of civil aviation that involves operating aircraft for remuneration or hire, as opposed to private aviation.
Definition
Commercial aviation is not a rigorously defined category. All commercial air transport and aer ...
within
civil aviation
Civil aviation is one of two major categories of flying, representing all non-military and non-state aviation, both private and commercial. Most of the countries in the world are members of the International Civil Aviation Organization and work ...
where the departure and the arrival take place in the same
country
A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...
.
Airports serving domestic flights only are known as
domestic airports.
Domestic flights are generally cheaper and shorter than most
international flight
An international flight is a form of commercial flight within civil aviation where the departure and the arrival take place in different countries.
Regular international passenger air service began in August 1919 with a flight going from Lond ...
s. Some international flights may be cheaper than domestic ones due to the short distance between the pair of cities in different countries, and also because domestic flights might, in smaller countries, mainly be used by high paying business travellers, while leisure travellers use road or rail domestically.
Domestic flights are the only sector of aviation not exhibiting a global long term growth trend due to many smaller countries increasingly replacing short domestic routes with
high speed rail
High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines ...
; that said, most of the
busiest air routes in the world are domestic flights.
Some smaller countries, like
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
, have no scheduled domestic flights. Medium-sized countries like the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
have very few domestic flights; most of them are merely a leg between small regional airports such as
Groningen Airport Eelde
Groningen Airport Eelde is a minor international airport in the northeastern Netherlands. It is located near Eelde in the Province of Drenthe, south of the city of Groningen in the province of Groningen. In 2015, the airport handled 220,710 ...
,
Maastricht Aachen Airport
Maastricht Aachen Airport is a regional airport in Beek in Limburg, Netherlands, located northeast of Maastricht and northwest of Aachen, Germany. It is the second-largest hub for cargo flights in the Netherlands. As of 2016, the airport had ...
and
Rotterdam The Hague Airport
Rotterdam The Hague Airport (formerly ''Rotterdam Airport'', ''Vliegveld Zestienhoven'' in Dutch), is a minor international airport serving Rotterdam, the Netherlands' second largest city, and The Hague, its administrative and royal capital. I ...
to pick up passengers from various parts of the country before proceeding to international destinations.
In June 2013, Dutch MP
Liesbeth van Tongeren
Liesbeth van Tongeren (born 31 March 1958 in Vlaardingen) is a Dutch politician, and former civil servant and director of Greenpeace Netherlands (2003–2010). As a member of GroenLinks, she was a member of the House of Representatives from 17 ...
(
GreenLeft
GroenLinks (, ) is a Green politics, green List of political parties in the Netherlands, political party in the Netherlands.
It was formed on 1 March 1989 from the merger of four Left-wing politics, left-wing parties: the Communist Party of th ...
, previously
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth t ...
Netherlands director) proposed to prohibit domestic flights in the Netherlands with the argument that they are needlessly inefficient, polluting and expensive, but Environment Secretary
Wilma Mansveld
Wilma Jacqueline Mansveld (born 11 September 1962) is a Dutch politician of the Labour Party (PvdA). She served as Undersecretary for Infrastructure and Environment, dealing with water policy, environment and aviation in the Second Rutte cabine ...
(
Labour Party) said such a ban would violate EU regulations that allow airlines to fly domestically.
Largest domestic markets
See also
*
Airliner
*
Cabotage
Cabotage () is the transport of goods or passengers between two places in the same country. It originally applied to shipping along coastal routes, port to port, but now applies to aviation, railways, and road transport as well.
Cabotage rights ar ...
*
Commercial aviation
Commercial aviation is the part of civil aviation that involves operating aircraft for remuneration or hire, as opposed to private aviation.
Definition
Commercial aviation is not a rigorously defined category. All commercial air transport and ae ...
*
Domestic airport
*
International flight
An international flight is a form of commercial flight within civil aviation where the departure and the arrival take place in different countries.
Regular international passenger air service began in August 1919 with a flight going from Lond ...
*
Non-stop flight
A non-stop flight is a flight by an aircraft with no intermediate stops.
History
During the early age of aviation industry when aircraft range was limited, most flights were served in the form of milk run, aka there were many stops along ...
*
Private aviation
Private aviation is the part of civil aviation that does not include flying for hire, as opposed to commercial aviation.
Definition
Private aviation and commercial aviation are not rigorously defined. In general, private aviation is regarded a ...
References
Civil aviation
{{Aviation-stub