In the past several years, air travel has become less appealing for some travellers. Tighter security regulations mean longer waits. Rising fuel prices can lead to more expensive tickets. Despite(尽管) the inconveniences, air travel still has a number of advantages over car, train and bus travel.
For a long distance, air travel is the fastest way to get to your destination, but even on shorter trips planes are much quicker. On a medium-length trip from New York City to Detroit, a flight will take about 4.5 hours—including an hour's driving to and from the airport and an hour's waiting in the terminal(终点站) — while a car ride will take 9.5 hours, a bus ride almost 15 hours and a train ride about 16.5 hours. Buses, cars and trains only begin to become competitive on extremely short trips such as from NYC to Philadelphia.
Plane crashes are tragic events that can result in hundreds of deaths. Fortunately, they are extremely rare. According to Chance News, the odds(可能性) of dying on a 1,000-mile flight are significantly less than those from dying on a 100-mile car ride. Car, bus and train travel are also more dangerous than flying on a plane.
The cost of tickets for airplane, bus and train travel can vary greatly. In many cases, however, air travel is the cheapest way. A trip from New York City to Detroit costs $86 by plane. This is comparable to slightly cheaper train tickets ($75) and bus tickets ($80) and cheaper than car travel ($115). On the longer New York City to Los Angeles trip, the advantages of air travel shine: airplane tickets are more than 30 dollars less than train tickets, the cheapest alternative.
