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Comment by mcv | Hacker News Reader

"For no good reason"? I thought you just explained that for the hub model to work, airports need to grow in places where there's no space for them (near major cities). That sounds like a pretty good reason.

That said, Dutch governments seem determined to make Schiphol (Amsterdam airport) a hub, and from what I understand, they've succeeded in becoming a hub for not just Netherland, but also the UK, because Heathrow is unable to become a hub due to space constraints. Schiphol, on the other hand, has seen major expansion (a fifth take-off lane in the 1990s), and the Dutch government is considering turning a small airport in the vicinity (Lelystad) into an extension of Schiphol. Most people don't like that idea.

Frankfurt is also a major hub. There are plenty of hubs, but there isn't always space for them (like in London), and other concerns are often deemed more important than sacrificing all space to an airport.

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Schiphol has really long taxi times. Like 20 minutes from touchdown to doors opening. If it's a hub then you can multiply taxi time by two which means the best part of an hour is spent just taxiing when many flights across Europe only take about an hour or two anyway.

The long taxi is really only from the Polderbaan, the far away runway to the NW of the terminal.

That's unavoidable with a big hub. Some runways are going to be further away from the terminal. In Frankfurt, I've actually had a bus take us from the terminal to the plane.

And for short trips, most time is wasted by having to check in two hours in advance. High speed trains are better for short trips in my opinion. But as far as I understand, the point of a hub is to concentrate traffic for the long trips. Those 20 minutes suddenly don't matter all that much anymore.

Well, most larger airports don't like you walking on the apron more than absolutely necessary, and if they don't have a jet bridge available they put you on a bus even if the plane is only a few yards away. But IIRC Frankfurt is the one where the bus actually goes out of the airport and down a public road?

Don't think so.

Though, you have a high change of crossing over the Autobahn with your plane if you arrive with a 2 engine model (the HEAVYs cannot use the northern runway, as the runway is too short for them)

And some planes are parked rather remotely, where the bus trip might take around 10-15 minutes and is not that much different from the official guided bus tour of the airport.

> In Frankfurt, I've actually had a bus take us from the terminal to the plane.

This is very common even in smaller airports when an airline doesn't want to pay for the more expensive placement at the tube, as far as I understand. Also some airports have a road for airport vehicles just between the building and plane parking position, and don't allow people to walk to the plane for security reasons.

Feels like most of my flights start with a bus to the plane.

Really? For me it was a first. At Schiphol, all planes park at the tube. I've been to other countries where they don't have a tube at all, and there we left the plane by a stair and walked across the tarmac to the (usually very small) arrivals building.

I don’t really like flying though schipol. I avoid it where I can.

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