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by mkent 4547 days ago
Living on an island in Canada I've taken these small commuter flights a number of times. Being able to hop on near the actual flight time is fantastic. Few points about these smaller flights:

- Typically they still want you there 30 mins early to check-in and load the baggage.

- The pilot to passenger ratio makes them very expensive. A 20 minute flight for me is costlier than a 5 hour one to a major hub. I rarely pay for these out of my own pocket.

- Being a smaller operation your pilot can be very young and inexperienced.

- These planes are very small and at times get uncomfortably hot in the summer.

- The majority of crashes around here are from similarly sized aircraft. Always an uncomfortable reminder of what can go wrong.

- Flying in any kind of adverse weather can honestly be pretty terrifying in a smaller plane. If your lucky they'll delay or cancel it altogether.

- Sometimes your pilot will leave the window open and a wasp will fly in prior to take off. Sitting in the co-pilot seat in a cramped plane, it may be up to you to kill it :)

Overall I prefer the smaller flights in the summer, but I'll take the slow security for the safety of the bigger plane in winter.