A milk run, milk round, or milk route is the fixed route taken to pick up milk from dairy farmers, or to deliver milk to consumers, as part of a milk delivery system.[1] In extended usage, it may be a transportation service that has many stops. Metaphorically, it may be a slow or tedious trip, a military air mission posing little danger, or any circular route.
Dairy use
Milk runs are documented in the American Upper Midwest as early as 1917, where it was a train that made frequent stops to pick up farmers' milk cans for shipment to local dairies for processing and bottling.[2]
It may also be the route used to distribute full milk bottles and collect empties by a milkman.[3] The route may be sold by one milkman to another.[1]
Transportation
In scheduled passenger airline or rail travel, a milk run may involve a trip with many stops,[4][1] and more generally a slow, tedious trip. It may also be an uneventful trip.[4]
Military aviation
For United States Army Air Corps and Royal Air Force aircrews, a milk run was a mission posing little danger.[5]
Commercial aviation
In the airline industry, a "milk run" is a multi-stop, regularly-scheduled passenger flight operated with a single aircraft. Current examples include:
- Several Alaska Airlines routes connecting smaller Alaskan cities to Juneau, Anchorage, Fairbanks and Seattle.[6][7]
- The Rex Airlines Milk Run in Queensland, Australia.[8]
- United Airlines tri-weekly Island Hopper service from Honolulu to Guam via Chuuk, Kosrae, Pohnpei, Kwajalein and Majuro.
An historical example of a transcontinental airline milk run in the U.S. in 1962 was National Airlines (1934-1980) flight 223 operated daily with a Lockheed L-188 Electra turboprop aircraft on a south and then westbound routing of Boston - New York City - Jacksonville, FL - Orlando - Tampa - New Orleans - Houston - Las Vegas - San Francisco.[9][10][11] According to the March 2, 1962 National Airlines system timetable, flight 223 departed Boston at 7:30 am and then arrived in San Francisco at 8:42 pm on the same day with seven intermediate stops en route.