The term “regional flights” lacks a uniform definition, making it difficult to differentiate from domestic flights. Suggestions for defining regional flights include limiting the area to a certain geographic region or using the type of aircraft used, such as smaller commuter or regional jets.
The term regional flights can be one of the most misunderstood in the aviation industry and there’s a simple reason for that. While the term is often used to describe certain flights, there is no rule or definition to determine what a regional flight is. Therefore, differentiating regional from domestic flights is problematic.
Domestic flights are flights that start and end within the same country. Regional flights also start and end within the same country. However, they are intended as flights over shorter distances. For example, flights between Miami, Florida and Los Angeles, California would be considered domestic flights. Flights between Miami and Orlando, both in Florida, could be considered regional.
Despite the lack of a uniform definition, there are a number of suggestions that would make sense when defining a particular flight as regional. Regional flights could be any flights that are within a day’s drive, or 12 to 15 hours, of the originating airport. This would, by default, limit the area to a certain defined geographic region.
Another possibility is to divide the US into quarterly regions and say that all flights within that area are regional flights. However, drawing lines arbitrarily leads to some problems. For example, a flight starting in St. Louis, Missouri and landing in Louisville, Kentucky may be between two different regions. However, the distance between the two cities can be easily reached within a day’s drive. Indeed, under this definition, some regional flights may be longer than what would be termed domestic flights. This makes the definition a little awkward.
Perhaps regional flights are best defined by the type of aircraft used. This definition would make more sense for a number of different reasons. Often, smaller jets or prop planes have a limited flight distance, so they have to stay within a more limited geographic region than a jumbo jet.
Typically, these smaller jets are called commuter jets or regional jets. Then it would logically follow that they serve regional flights. Typically, these jets carry fewer than 50 people and have a range on a single tank of fuel of about 1,500 miles maximum. So if you’re taking a flight that has about 50 seats or fewer and you’re flying less than 1,500 miles, you could reasonably call it regional.
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