Flight levels - real world short hops

[Guest]

As we all know, jet aircraft operate most efficiently at higher flight levels, and I believe must remain at 250 KIAS or below when flying under 11,000 feet. When commercial carriers operate short flights (i.e. 250 nm or less) the flight plans they file are obviously affected by many factors --- weather, traffic, assigned jetways, etc. With all this in mind, could someone please offer suggestions as to the desired flight levels for such operations? I expect that cruise levels of FL250 or above would not be uncommon, even though a descent would be required almost immediately after reaching cruise altitude.ThanksWayne Allen, CYYZ Toronto

[Guest]

in the us it is 250kts below 10k.the answer to your question depends on what type of plane the regional carrier is flying. i think they mostly fly in the high teens to mid twenties (turboprops being high teens/low twenties and regional jets in the low/mid twenties).

[John_Cillis 2,406]

Flying between Phoenix and Vegas, I've hit cruise altitudes up to FL350 on SWA... Flew often between SFO and Reno back in the 80's, and we'd cruise anywhere between FL230 and FL290. SFO->Reno is less than 200NM, and PHX->LAS, less than 250. In the case of my trips between PHX and LAS, it'd take 20 minutes to reach cruise, then we'd spend about 5 minutes at cruise alt, before starting our descent.As mentioned in another post, much depends on equipment used. For the sake of my post, I am just thinking about jet flights.-John