OAG Travel News

Last week’s article describing some of the world’s shortest flights generated quite a bit of interest – as well as some questions.  I did not cover Europe in the first article, so this week will focus entirely on some of the shortest scheduled commercial flights in Europe for the month of November 2008.

The shortest flight in Europe is between Westray and Papa Westray, separate islands that are part of Scotland’s Orkney archipelago.  The service measures eight statute miles and is operated by Scottish regional carrier Loganair on eight-seat Britten Norman twin-propeller aircraft once a week.  According to historical records, Westray and Papa Westray were once joined.  If in fact the islands were still joined today, it is possible they would not require air service.  In that case, the 10-statute mile service between North Ronaldsay and Sanday – also both part of the Orkney archipelago – would rank as the shortest in Europe.  This service is operated by Loganair once weekly.  In fact, several other flights between various islands in the Orkney archipelago rank among the shortest in Europe.

The next shortest flight included in the schedule tapes is helicopter service between Nice, France, and Monte Carlo, Monaco.  The 11-statute mile service is operated by two companies – Heli Sécurité and Heli-Air-Monaco.  The shortest flight within France is from Morlaix to Landivisiau in Brittany.  Operated once daily by Air France’s regional carrier Brit Air on a 50-seat CRJ, the stage length is 15 statue miles.  Interestingly, the driving distance between these two cities is only 13 miles – less than the flight distance.  And another interesting fact – Morlaix is home to the tallest lighthouse in France.

The theme of service between islands is quite prevalent for the shortest flights in Europe.  The shortest flight in Portugal is between Corvo Island and Flores Island, both part of the Azores archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean.  Separated by a distance of 16 statute miles, flights are operated twice weekly by SATA Air Açores.  The shortest flight in Greece is between two islands in the Dodecanese archipelago in the South Aegean Sea.  Nearly daily flights between Karpathos and Karos – a distance of 19 statute miles – are operated by Olympic Airways on 37-seat De Havilland Dash 8 aircraft.

Norway has numerous flights of short distances, most between islands and extremely remote locations.  The shortest is 20 statute miles – the flight distance between Berlevag and Batsfjord – two municipalities located north of the Arctic Circle.  Flights are operated by Wideroes Flyveselskap (Wideroe) on 37-seat De Havilland Dash 8 aircraft.

The shortest flight in Switzerland is between two large cities – Basel and Zurich.  This service is 49 statute miles and is operated by Swiss European Air Lines, a subsidiary of Swiss International Air Lines.  The flight operates one time per day on 84-seat Avro RJ100 twin-turboprop aircraft.

The shortest flight between two capital cities in Europe is between Helsinki, Finland and Tallinn, Estonia.  The 49-statute mile flight is operated by both Finnair and Estonian Air.  Taking second place for distance between European capital cities is the 98 statute miles that separate Brussels, Belgium and Amsterdam, Netherlands – double the distance between Helsinki and Tallinn.  Not surprisingly, this service is operated by KLM.  However, what did surprise me is the fact that Air Malta provides nonstop service between Brussels and Amsterdam once per week.  And sneaking in just under 100 statute miles, the flight distance between Skopje, Macdeonia and Tirana, Albania is 99 statue miles, ranking third.  This service is provided by Bulgaria Air twice weekly.

Certainly I could go on and on describing short flights within Europe… In doing so, I might also break the world record for use of the word archipelago in one article!  But I’ll save additional flight length tales for next week’s article when I turn – naturally – to the world’s longest flights.

Source: Official Airline Guide (OAG) Schedule Tapes for November 2008.

Story By: Laura Jackson.

OAG contributor Laura Jackson was just two weeks old when she took her first flight on Piedmont Airlines.  In junior high school, she developed a business plan for her own airline.  Today she manages strategy and policy issues at one of the world's busiest airports and provides original content and aviation industry analysis for OAG.