The actual time to skim off IMO is all the airport procedures.
And the time wasted on transfers. I used to regularly fly from airports in NY, London, SF, Singapore, LA, Sydney, etc. I would block out the opportunities to work or rest, and the reality was that only the plane time was valuable for either. It was painful to see all the other blocks of non productive time, particularly the allowances for congestion and disruption between downtown and the airports. I would have paid thousands a flight to be able to check in/clear security at my hotel and then get driven to a holding bay at the airport, and then on to the gate, in a vehicle suitable for both work and rest.
Really? Obviously it varies by country, but there’s no customs/immigration when leaving the US, and security usually takes <5 minutes with PreCheck. Sometimes immigration takes a while on the other side, but it’s quick at airports with biometric gate systems. You still hear people talk about airport buffer time in units of hours, but I think that’s increasingly out of date.
Not necessarily for extremely long haul flights. The airport side of things takes about the same amount of time regardless. For a transpacific flight, you’re looking at maybe 3-4 hours at the airport and 10+ hours in the air. Shaving down the airport side would be nice but a faster plane could save a lot more time.
This is a solved problem in civilized countries. The time between arriving at an airport and boarding your plane in Japan is ~10 minutes, most of it walking. Because they don't spend an hour fucking around with clownshow security, and because boarding doesn't take forever, as people don't try to stuff ten pieces of carry-on luggage into five overhead bin spaces.
Customs always takes time, though, even in the happy (no extra questions, no bag searches) path.
---
Do you want to know the secret to fast security lines?
Either reduce the work security does, or open more lines and hire more agents[1], until they can meet the throughput requirements. Both seem to be anathema to an American airport.
---
[1] This also works to reduce lines and improve quality and cleanliness in other aspects of society. It's not that Japanese people don't produce any garbage, or dirt, it's that their public infrastructure is regularly and meticulously cleaned and maintained.
This is already a solved problem for the class of customers they are going after.