Surely many people will wonder why the distance is so short that people have to create a whole flight path. And here’s why…

When needing to go to a remote place or wanting to save travel time, most people choose to travel by air, which is both fast and convenient. However, no matter how fast, a plane trip must last at least about 30 minutes to a dozen hours. Yet in the world there is a record short flight – only about 2 minutes.

It is the world’s shortest commercial flight, from Westray Island to Papa Westray Island in Scotland.

The two islands are more than 2km apart.

According to Popularmechanics, the distance between these two islands of the Orkney archipelago (there are more than 70 large and small islands) is only about 2.7 km. The outstanding feature of the Orkney Islands is its rugged coastline, without many tall trees. There are more than 70 islands but only 20 are inhabited. On Papa Westray Island there are less than 100 people.

The number of people living on the island is so small that investing in building a bridge is unnecessary and expensive.

Airport on Papa Westray Island.

Therefore, in 1967, the Scottish airline Loganair decided to open a flight to serve the travel needs of people on the two islands without spending too much money and time. Each trip will cost people about 30 USD to buy tickets.

Loganair’s plane is designed with 8 seats to serve passengers. Each flight can only fly at an altitude of about 100m, at a speed of 241km/h. So it only took less than 2 minutes for the plane to land. If the weather is favorable, it only takes 45 seconds.

There will be 2 air traffic controllers on the 2 islands and 4 rescue workers to ensure flight safety.

Although it was opened a long time ago, it was not until 2011 that this route opened to the public for tourists.

In 2016, this flight welcomed its 1 millionth passenger, Ms. Anne Rendall.