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up vote 19 down vote favorite

With the occasional debate about Oxford airport in the UK becoming a new London airport, and hearing of a flight that once landed at Heathrow due to fog, then flew on to Gatwick, I was wondering - what is the shortest (time) regular (ie I can look it up online and book a ticket) passenger flight in the world? I'd specify distance as well, but in theory that shouldn't matter?

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I bet on some connection between islands of an archipelago. – mouviciel Jan 24 '12 at 5:32
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related: travel.stackexchange.com/q/5065/101 – Mark Mayo Jan 24 '12 at 11:29
can't believe I missed this question when it came out. See my edit to @VMAtm's answer:-) – Rory Alsop May 21 '12 at 9:20

3 Answers

up vote 25 down vote accepted

From Wikipedia (same article as your other question):

Westray - Papa Westray (Loganair)
flight number: LOG 313,
2.7km (1.7 miles)
02 min,
aircraft: Britten-Norman Islander,
first flight - 3 February 2004

It is obvious from that list that the best option is try searching near the islands. Second place is for the LI 507 (from St. Kitts to Nevis).

Update: Under the two minutes (with video)!

Update by Rory Alsop:

Flight by my father, Capt. Andy Alsop authenticated at 69 seconds by Guinness in 1974, and then reduced by him to 58 seconds!

Screenshot of the page linked above (from Orkney by Air by Guy Warner), as it may not be viewable to everyone: enter image description here

You can fly this on a sightseer ticket from Kirkwall for only £39!

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googling that it reckons the flight is 17 minutes (from Google's automatic flight information) – Mark Mayo Jan 24 '12 at 7:26
probably includes taxi time or something. Certainly at 2.7km, not much is going to beat it when you can physically see both airports at the same time... – Mark Mayo Jan 24 '12 at 7:28
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@Mark Mayo That's two different islands in Scotland. Yes, we can! – VMAtm Jan 24 '12 at 7:40
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According to this page flight journey is under 2 minutes. – Prashanth Mar 14 '12 at 9:17
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@RoryAlsop - that is just too awesome :) – Mark Mayo May 22 '12 at 1:16
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up vote 5 down vote

Here it is: Papeete-Moorea: distance 18km, duration 15mn, operated by Air Tahiti.

From Air Tahiti site (fr) (select "Tahiti" on "Ile de départ" and "Moorea" on "Ile d'arrivée"), there are several flights each day (VT266, VT240, VT444).

But nothing can beat the Scottish 2.7km suggested by VMAtm!

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link? flight number? – Mark Mayo Jan 24 '12 at 6:03
wonder if you still have to go thru 2h of check ins and security procedures for this flight :) – iHaveacomputer Jan 24 '12 at 22:20
up vote 5 down vote

Between Norddeich, Germany and the Island of Juist there are between 6 and 10 daily scheduled flights. The distance is about 10km and the flight time listed as 5 minutes. I couldn't find information about flight numbers or plane types.

There are also a large number of on-demand and sightseeing flights out of Juist airport, allegedly making this tiny runway the second-busiest airport (by number of flights) in the state of Lower Saxony.

Juist is a very popular health spa and tourist destination, but the ferry schedule has to change with the tides, so going there by plane is often the most convenient option.

As an added curiosity, cars are not allowed on the island, so the shuttle service between the airport and the two towns is provided by horse carriage.

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At Barra, even the scheduled flights change with the tides. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barra_Airport_(Scotland) It's kind of "worth" going up there just for that. – Tom Hawtin - tackline Jan 25 '12 at 23:48

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