That doesn't match my experience. Flights within the EU - especially if I travel with a carry-on only - are quick and frictionless.

I arrive at the airport 30 minutes before departure. I check in using a mobile app. Automatized gate with facial recognition tech takes my ID and boarding pass QR code - there are so many gates there's never a queue. The worst part of the ordeal - the security check of baggage - takes 5-10 minutes or so. I sit in the plane and we fly. At the destination I simply walk away without any queues anywhere (single duty zone...).

Definitely not 3x the travel time, no way. I never had boarding take more than an hour, and it only took that long when I was going out of EU.

Don't forget that trains take you right to the city centre, but airports are outside of the city.

Where I live it's 20 minutes trip from the city centre. So yep, you're right - adds some time. But not enough to add up to 3x travel time, by far.

This is usually more of a concern for people traveling with lowcost airlines - these cheap out and arrive at another town's airport in many cases. National airlines like Lufthansa will take you much nearer your actual destination.

Of course there is, it's just that when you look at the overall picture, it's faster and more convenient. Just to give an example, as this was my general setup and still is for quite some time. One flight is at 10 PM, you can still work the whole day, go leave for the airport at around 7-7:30 PM, at 1 AM I'm at my destination (with a +1 hour timezone change), so that is about 5 hours. But can still sleep afterwards and have a full day the second day.

By car you can leave at around 7 AM and best case scenario you drive 9 hours, worst case 12. Train you leave at around midnight and get there at 4 PM, but you can't actually sleep in the train as there are no sleeper carts. When it comes to cost, car is cheapest with plane and train around the same, depending when you buy the ticket. When it comes to setting everything up, car is basic, you just get in and drive, all vignettes online; plane buy ticket in one place, that is it, train a bit more complicated. I still hope we'll get better at this, because I don't believe that autonomous cars or self driving will solve anything and we should focus on trains when it comes to more environmentally friendly mass transportation.