whats too short to fly?
 

I live on the Illinois side of St. Louis, I'm 45 min drive to STL, Republic is on my short list of Airlines that I want to apply for. I'm about 4.5 hour drive from ORD and MCI and about 3.5 from KIND.

I'm not even sure if those are junior bases or not, just not sure whats worth flying and what might just be easier to drive in.

For reserve, you need to be able to be inside security, comfortably within two hours (or whatever the call-out is). That includes whatever parking shuttle you have to take, and rush hour traffic.

If you can bid reserve that only touches one rush hour, as opposed to both morning and evening, then it's practical to drive part of the way and go to a gym, movie, whatever until rush hour is over and then go home again.

As a line holder, I would drive three hours rather than commute by air. Maybe four hours if it's an easy drive (no traffic). Some of that depends on the nature of the commute by air.

MCI and IND would not be good to fly to from STL because there are very few direct flights each day. ORD might be a toss up depending on traffic and loads for the day because there are a lot of direct flights each day. If you go to RPA I would think IND would be the best for you because you likely wouldn’t have many issues with traffic. Plus IND is on the southwest side of Indy right off of 70. It would be an easy drive. Where as if you go up to Chicago you will fight traffic there and back, and if you go to MCI you’ll fight traffic going through St Louis.

Keep in mind from reading the RPA forum IND is an outstation so the trips begin early and end late. I see a lot leave around 5:30 to 8:30 am and many getting back around 10:00 to 12 midnight.

Why not Trans States or Gojet? They have STL domiciles.

Considering, just keeping options open