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I’ve enjoyed flying in smaller planes on scheduled flights in the past (e.g. Aurigny’s old Trislanders). Are there any other scheduled flights in Europe in small (sub-20-seat) planes that are still running? I know about the Westray to Papa Westray flight already but feel free to include it in a list.

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    There are flights from the west coast of ireland to the Aran islands : aerarannislands.ie
    – Neil
    Feb 13, 2018 at 8:38

6 Answers 6

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I did a search of all intra-European flights for tomorrow (12 Feb 2018) and came up with the following:

  1. Hahn Air has a flight with a Cessna Citation (6 seats) scheduled between LUX and DUS
  2. Loganair has several flights, as previously noted, mostly from KOI, NRL, and PPW on Britain-Norman Islanders (8 seats), as well as a number of flights around Scotland on 19-seat Twin Otters
  3. Direct Flight has some Islanders with 9 seats flying out of LWK
  4. Hebridean Air Services flies some Islanders from COL, TRE, and OBN
  5. Isle of Scilly Skybus flies 16-seat Twin Otters from ISC to NQY and LEQ
  6. BA's Scandinavian subsidiary, Sun Air of Scandinavia, flies 18-seat Avro J-31's between BGO and BLL
  7. Aurigny flies 18-seat Dornier 228s between GCI and DNR
  8. Flybe flies 19-seat Avro J-41's between CWL and VLY
  9. Chalair flies Beechcraft Beech 1900D's with 19 seats around western France, mostly based out of BOD and NTE
  10. Norlandair flies 19-seat Twin Otters in Iceland
  11. AIS Airlines flies 19-seat Avro J-32's around Sweden, including ORB, GOT, and MMX
  12. Aero VIP flies Avro J-32's around the Madeira Islands
  13. Twin Jet flies Beechcraft Beech 1900D's with 19 seats around France based out of ORY, MRS, TLS, and LYS
  14. SUE Orenberg flies 20-seat Let 410's around Russia.

That's just for one day. It's certainly likely that a lot of small routes with small planes don't fly everyday so I'm probably missing some.

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    In case you're wondering, the Hahn Air flight takes 45 minutes and costs $362. The train between the same two destinations takes 3h 45m and costs $85.
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Feb 12, 2018 at 6:35
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    How did you search for all flights and then select the ones with the fewest seats or smallest planes?
    – gerrit
    Feb 12, 2018 at 11:54
  • @JonathanReez I wasn't suggesting that was a good option, just that it's something one could do... :)
    – cbw
    Feb 12, 2018 at 14:17
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    @gerrit I work for an airline so I have access to some cool industry tools that let me do searches like that.
    – cbw
    Feb 12, 2018 at 14:19
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    Note that Hahn Air isn't a traditional Airline. Their primary business is some kind of reselling / ticketing solution. They only operate a couple of pro-forma scheduled flights to retain their legal status as an airline, which they require for their primary business model.
    – CodesInChaos
    Feb 12, 2018 at 15:57
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OFD in Germany is offering regular flights (scheduled) between Emden and Borkum using a Cessna 172, with 2 pax max.

Flight schedule

The fleet

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  • The website also mentions some larger planes, how can I tell they use the Cessna 172 rather than one of their larger planes?
    – gerrit
    Feb 12, 2018 at 14:41
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    It is possible to ask them directly. However, by personal experience I can confirm that in most cases (in my case 100%) the 172 is serving the Emden - Borkum route. I do however know of some (rare) cases that another plane served that route though.
    – Tony Delaney
    Feb 12, 2018 at 14:59
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Wikipedia lists a few dozen European operators of Britten-Norman Islanders. Many of them are historical, but a few appear to currently fly scheduled routes with them:

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Norwegian company Lufttransport have a scheduled route between Bodø Airport and Værøy Heliport using the AgustaWestland AW139 helicopter (Værøy Airport has been closed since a Twin Otter fatally crashed). This helicopter has 15 seats. It's a bit heavier and longer than some small fixed-wing aircrafts, but certainly much narrower. Dimensions from Wikipedia:

Length: 16.66 m (54 ft 8 in)
Width: 2.26 m (10 ft 0 in)
Height: 4.98 m (16 ft 4 in)
Empty weight: 3,622 kg (7,985 lb)

For comparison, the Twin Otter DHC-6 Series 100 has:

Length: 15.77 m
Width: 19.8 m (wingspan)
Height: 5.9 m
Empty weight: 2,653 kg

The Britten-Norman BN-2A Islander is shorter, lower, and lighter yet, but as a fixed-wing aircraft, remains much wider than the AgustaWestland. For most definitions of "smaller", the Britten-Norman would win, but if you're looking for the most compact "plane", the AgustaWestland helicopter flying to Værøy wins.

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In Portugal there is a company, Sevenair that only operates a small airplane, a 19 seats Dornier 228. It flies across all Portugal, North to South, connecting 5 cities, Bragança, Vila Real, Viseu, Cascais, Portimão.

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According to their website, Finist'air has flights most days of the week between Brest and Ushant on a 9-seat Cessna Caravan.

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