As of the writing of this post, there are no nonstop flights between Ohio’s two largest metropolitan areas, Cleveland and Cincinnati. There used to be a direct flight, which is a shade over 200 miles and takes about 40 minutes by air, but with cuts at Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) by Delta coupled with cuts at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE) by United, the direct flight was gone
(SEE ALSO: United and Frontier pulling flights from Cleveland)
(SEE ALSO: The curious case of Delta and CVG)
Ultimate Air Shuttle starting a direct flight
The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that there is a direct flight being introduced between Cleveland and Cincinnati, but it’s not by Delta, United or any of the other “main” carriers. Instead, it’s being operated by Ultimate Air Shuttle, a company that caters more to business travelers.
As such, the flights don’t go from CVG to CLE, but instead from Lunken Airport (LUK) a smaller airport closer to downtown Cincinnati to Burke Lakefront Airport (BKL), which is (wait for it….) on the Lakefront, in downtown Cleveland a mile or so east of Public Square and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The flights are scheduled to start at the end of October, and run twice a day (once in the morning and once in the evening). Prices are at $199 one-way or $379 roundtrip, though they are offering Buy 1 Get 1 Free through the end of December.
How does an Ultimate Air Shuttle flight differ from a “regular” flight
Ultimate Air Shuttle promotes its flights as a more premium service. The $379 includes transportation from Lunken Airport to either CVG or downtown Cincinnati, as well as parking, baggage, and in-flight food and drink. Ultimate Air Shuttle markets that passengers can arrive at the airport as late as 15 minutes before the flight time. According to the FAQs, there is also no TSA screening though you do have to show a government-issued ID (driver’s license)
I actually took a direct CLE-CVG flight 20 years ago before connecting via Delta to Salt Lake City – it’s there on my openflights map
(SEE ALSO: What’s the best site to track your flights?)
What do you think? $379 is actually pretty competitive with the current offerings between Cleveland and Cincinnati (usually routing through Detroit or Chicago) and takes a fraction of the time!
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Thanks, neighbor. I’m happy to see Ultimate Air is taking on more routes. Friends are discovering the Chicago flight. Fingers crossed they will make this work.
It would be cool! Have you signed up for the Cincinnati miles and points meetup?
Correction – BKL is not located a few miles west of downtown Cleveland. It is actually located downtown about a mile northeast of Public Square, just east of the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame & Museum.
Thanks – I grew up in Cleveland but left as a kid – can you tell I was a “suburbs” guy? 🙂 I’ll update the post
There were two flights in the past, if I recall. One on Continental (CLE was one of their hubs) and the other on Delta. I actually flew this route for a business trip about 16 years ago because the driving distance to my customer was just over the 250 mile threshold imposed by my company’s travel rules. I know we had a few frequencies per day because I was moved from an early morning to late morning flight (may have even been switched from DL to CO, I don’t remember). My company was really busy at the time with Y2K projects and driving would have caused at least a day’s hit to my productivity. The ticket price, because the meeting was booked at the last minute, was something like $660 and that was for an economy seat. If you think about it, Ultimate Air is offering near-city center service to both cities so that could be very attractive to some of the corporations. I hope it works for them, I’m all about having more flight options in the Cincinnati area.