[Symbiote]

In practise the flight is much slower due to security etc, and having to get to and from the airport.

For example, I wouldn't consider taking a flight from Copenhagen to Århus (40 minutes vs 2¼ hrs) as the saving is wasted on waiting, and flying is much less comfortable.

(That's an extreme example for the distance, as it crosses a sea.)

It's certainly a competitor, but definitely not the preferred option.

[dagw]

In practise the flight is much slower due to security etc

Only for very specific routes. If I want go to from here to the one of the maybe 4 closest large cities, I'm definitely taking the train. If I want to to go from here to just about any other major city in Europe flying is almost always much faster. A bunch of people from work where going to a conference in Amsterdam a few years ago and some of them wanted to take the train for environmental reasons, and the train was literally 20+ hours door to door from the midsized European city I live in. Directly flights are under 2 hours.

[Symbiote]

2 hours, plus time to check in, security, getting to and from the airport etc.

Two hours flight time from Amsterdam is Italy or beyond, that's quite different.