the.com/connecting flight
The airline's bet that two delays will somehow cancel each other out.
means A flight scheduled so tightly after your first one that you must sprint across an airport to catch it before it leaves without you.
from Simple compound of 'connect' (from Latin 'connectere' — to bind or fasten together, from 'com-' meaning 'together' and 'nectere' meaning 'to tie') plus 'flight.' The aviation sense emerged as airlines built hub-and-spoke route networks, 'connecting' two separate flights into one journey on paper — whatever the gate distances suggest in practice.
- minimum legal
- airports set a minimum connection time, airlines routinely ignore it
- sprint distance
- some transfers require literally running terminal to terminal
- luggage lag
- your bag books its own, often later, connection
- risk math
- more layovers multiply chances of missing the whole trip