How do I reduce my redirect chain and time to first byte (TTFB)?

If I enter example.com in my address bar, the redirect for my server will look like this:

example.com -> http://www.example.com/ -> https://www.example.com/ -> https://www.example.com/en/

I know that I could cut down at least one redirect by changing from www.domain.com back to .domain.com but that really is the last resort since it is a tradeoff between the perceived profesionalism of the website and its performance.

For most of my speed tests I entered https://www.example.com/en/ to not get penaltalized for the redirects only to notice that the time to first byte is terrific with 1.5 - 4 seconds depending on the server’s location.

At first I was under the impression that I simply had misconfigured the servers but after finally just entering example.com in any of the TTFB tests, I got anything from 24ms in frankfurt to 620ms in sydney.

My ssl redirects are based on the Let’s encrypt force ssl and my language related redirects are based on the CMS I’m using. The www redirect is domain based and the CMS is also set to run on www.domain.com rather than domain.com.

My question now is, is there a way to reduce the redirect chains or to modify them in a way to be less taxing on the TTFB?

This is the content of my .htaccess

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
<IfModule mod_env.c>
SetEnv HTTP_MOD_REWRITE On
</IfModule>

RewriteEngine on


#Domain: www.example.com
RewriteRule . - [E=REWRITEBASE:/]
RewriteRule ^api$ api/ [L]

RewriteRule ^api/(.*)$ %{ENV:REWRITEBASE}webservice/dispatcher.php?url=$1 [QSA,L]

# Images
RewriteRule ^([0-9])(\-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?(-[0-9]+)?/.+\.jpg$ %{ENV:REWRITEBASE}img/p/$1/$1$2$3.jpg [L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9])([0-9])(\-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?(-[0-9]+)?/.+\.jpg$ %{ENV:REWRITEBASE}img/p/$1/$2/$1$2$3$4.jpg [L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])(\-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?(-[0-9]+)?/.+\.jpg$ %{ENV:REWRITEBASE}img/p/$1/$2/$3/$1$2$3$4$5.jpg [L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])(\-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?(-[0-9]+)?/.+\.jpg$ %{ENV:REWRITEBASE}img/p/$1/$2/$3/$4/$1$2$3$4$5$6.jpg [L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])(\-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?(-[0-9]+)?/.+\.jpg$ %{ENV:REWRITEBASE}img/p/$1/$2/$3/$4/$5/$1$2$3$4$5$6$7.jpg [L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])(\-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?(-[0-9]+)?/.+\.jpg$ %{ENV:REWRITEBASE}img/p/$1/$2/$3/$4/$5/$6/$1$2$3$4$5$6$7$8.jpg [L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])(\-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?(-[0-9]+)?/.+\.jpg$ %{ENV:REWRITEBASE}img/p/$1/$2/$3/$4/$5/$6/$7/$1$2$3$4$5$6$7$8$9.jpg [L]
RewriteRule ^([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])([0-9])(\-[_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)?(-[0-9]+)?/.+\.jpg$ %{ENV:REWRITEBASE}img/p/$1/$2/$3/$4/$5/$6/$7/$8/$1$2$3$4$5$6$7$8$9$10.jpg [L]
RewriteRule ^c/([0-9]+)(\-[\.*_a-zA-Z0-9-]*)(-[0-9]+)?/.+\.jpg$ %{ENV:REWRITEBASE}img/c/$1$2$3.jpg [L]
RewriteRule ^c/([a-zA-Z_-]+)(-[0-9]+)?/.+\.jpg$ %{ENV:REWRITEBASE}img/c/$1$2.jpg [L]
# AlphaImageLoader for IE and fancybox
RewriteRule ^images_ie/?([^/]+)\.(jpe?g|png|gif)$ js/jquery/plugins/fancybox/images/$1.$2 [L]

# Dispatcher
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -s [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -l [OR]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
RewriteRule ^.*$ - [NC,L]
RewriteRule ^.*$ %{ENV:REWRITEBASE}index.php [NC,L]
</IfModule>

AddType application/vnd.ms-fontobject .eot
AddType font/ttf .ttf
AddType font/otf .otf
AddType application/font-woff .woff
AddType font/woff2 .woff2
<IfModule mod_headers.c>
	<FilesMatch "\.(ttf|ttc|otf|eot|woff|woff2|svg)$">
		Header set Access-Control-Allow-Origin "*"
	</FilesMatch>
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_expires.c>
	ExpiresActive On
	ExpiresByType image/gif "access plus 1 month"
	ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access plus 1 month"
	ExpiresByType image/png "access plus 1 month"
	ExpiresByType text/css "access plus 1 week"
	ExpiresByType text/javascript "access plus 1 week"
	ExpiresByType application/javascript "access plus 1 week"
	ExpiresByType application/x-javascript "access plus 1 week"
	ExpiresByType image/x-icon "access plus 1 year"
	ExpiresByType image/svg+xml "access plus 1 year"
	ExpiresByType image/vnd.microsoft.icon "access plus 1 year"
	ExpiresByType application/font-woff "access plus 1 year"
	ExpiresByType application/x-font-woff "access plus 1 year"
	ExpiresByType font/woff2 "access plus 1 year"
	ExpiresByType application/vnd.ms-fontobject "access plus 1 year"
	ExpiresByType font/opentype "access plus 1 year"
	ExpiresByType font/ttf "access plus 1 year"
	ExpiresByType font/otf "access plus 1 year"
	ExpiresByType application/x-font-ttf "access plus 1 year"
	ExpiresByType application/x-font-otf "access plus 1 year"
</IfModule>

<IfModule mod_headers.c>
    Header unset Etag
</IfModule>
FileETag none
<IfModule mod_deflate.c>
    <IfModule mod_filter.c>
        AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html text/css text/javascript application/javascript application/x-javascript font/ttf application/x-font-ttf font/otf application/x-font-otf font/opentype image/svg+xml
    </IfModule>
</IfModule>

#If rewrite mod isn't enabled
ErrorDocument 404 /index.php?controller=404