Tuesday, 27 March 2012

18 Mar 2012 - World's shortest commercial flight

Today I was watching 'QI' and I learnt that the shortest commercial flight in the world is between two of the islands in the Orkney Islands, off the north east coast of Scotland. The flight is between Westray and Papa Westray and covers less than 2 miles (3.2 kilometres) in the air. In fact the main airport runway in Edinburgh, in Scotland, which is 1.6 miles (2.56 kilometres) long is about the distance of this entire flight! The flight is completed in under 2 minutes, so you would spend much more time in the airport, than for the entire flight and apparently upon completion of the flight, tourists are presented with a certificate signed by the captain and a bottle of Orkney whiskey.

I found this fact fascinating because I have taken a few long haul flights before which have consisted of 20 plus hours in the air, which to put it in perspective is more than the time in the air for 600 flights between Westray and Papa Westray. It also begs that question, that if this flight only covers about 2 miles, couldn't they just build a bridge between the two islands. I suppose however, if they built a bridge, they would no longer be operating the shortest commercial flight in the world, and that is probably generating some tourist interest in the area. Additionally to the flight you can reach Papa Westray from Westray via a daily ferry service. However it appears that the ferry services takes much longer than the flight, so I can see why people would be opting for the two minutes in the air.

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