Direct flights are vital to startup success, says a major study - Carlomaria Grassi

That's very important
!!! ... as we note, the study measured innovation by using patents as a proxy.
Adding a direct airline route between where venture capitalists work and the
locations of their portfolio companies led to a 3.1% increase in the patents
those start-ups were granted. These patents were relatively high-quality
innovations in the eyes of industry, on the whole, given that they received
many citations in the literature. Start-ups with direct flights to VC hubs had
5.8% more citations those who didn’t. But also the study’s authors wrote: most of the effects we observe occur between 12 and 24 months after the
introduction of the new airline routes ...    Direct flights are vital to startup success, says a major study - Tnooz