City Hopper Airlines - The idea

Having a locked-in time for take-off that you purchase weeks or months in advance of your travel date can be inconvenient.  If there are frequent flights between two places, such as SFO and LAX, the seats travelling between these destinations could be reimagined as a market, and plane travel could more easily fit your schedule or you could save some money on flights.

You would first reserve a time window of a few hours for take-off of your flight. Several hours before that time window, an app on your phone or an email would ask you if you still plan to fly at that time. You could then head to the airport whenever is most convenient for you that day, knowing that if you arrive outside of your reserved window, you may have to pay extra to get onto a flight that is leaving at that time.  On your way to the airport, your phone updates City Hopper with your location. When you get to the terminal, your phone lets you know which flights are coming up if there would be any additional costs or any rebates for those flights.

The key idea here is that you can arrive at the airport any time and the cost to get onto the next flight to your destination depends on how many other people are also trying to get onto that flight. So if there are more people at the terminal than there are seats on the plane, then those who are in a hurry could potentially pay extra to get onto the next flight. If other people are willing to wait, then they could get a partial refund on their tickets. One could also get a partial refund if they arrive in time for flights outside of their time window that are not full. You could see these potentially-underbooked flights and the discount to take them in the City Hopper app.  If you do not choose to pay extra to leave sooner or get money back to leave later (or much earlier), then you will be placed on a flight by the end of your reserved time window for the base price that you already paid.

City Hopper would be an airline that runs many small flights between cities that are 300 to 600 miles apart. Having many flights makes it possible for people to take a half hour or hour delay in their travel instead of two or three hours.

If allowable by the air traffic control, having small flights would allow for the flexibility to leave a little earlier or later than initially planned. An important consequence is that there is no need build in buffer time where resources are idle. If the plane is ready early, fly earlier.