"Commercial flights already take the better part of a day, even for short jumps. I can't imagine having to arrive at the ferry terminal 4-5 hours before my flight so that I can get to the terminal in time to spend 2 more hours waiting for ticketing and security and all the other delays."
Presumably this airport could be used for flights that are long enough already that it doesn't matter nearly as much. Say, at least most of the way across the country. (And international flights, of course, where a few extra hours on top of 24 is unnoticeable.) SAN would be for the short hops.
The effectiveness of this depends entirely on the current distribution of flights on SAN, though, which I don't know. I've only done relatively short flights from SAN. For everything else I end up taking a commuter flight up to LAX (which is much, much faster than driving).
Presumably this airport could be used for flights that are long enough already that it doesn't matter nearly as much. Say, at least most of the way across the country. (And international flights, of course, where a few extra hours on top of 24 is unnoticeable.) SAN would be for the short hops.
The effectiveness of this depends entirely on the current distribution of flights on SAN, though, which I don't know. I've only done relatively short flights from SAN. For everything else I end up taking a commuter flight up to LAX (which is much, much faster than driving).