THE WORLD’S SHORTEST SCHEDULED FLIGHT
It costs £36 a ticket and the journey lasts just over a minute. Now 50 years after it went into service DOMINIC MIDGLEY boards…
affair, however. Weather conditions are good and the natives are said to be much more friendly than the sometimes warring tribes that Gary and his colleagues encountered on jungle airstrips.
Once aboard, it’s clear that there will be no G&Ts served by trolley dollies. Behind the pilot there are eight seats, two abreast, and it’s a snug fit for the slimmest of passengers.
Nor is there any of the “Doors to manual” nonsense. The safety briefing consists of Gary turning round to ask, “Everyone got seatbelts on?”, before notifying us that the safety instruction cards are in the seatback pockets.
With that he pushes forward the throttle and we’re off. The timing of the trip is done from “wheels off the ground to wheels down” and I start my stopwatch as we clear the runway and head across the narrow strait that separates Westray from its neighbour to the northeast. As the plane’s flaps remain down the entire way, the plane doesn’t exceed a matronly top speed of 110 knots but within 55 seconds we are over dry land once more.
Given its name, you could be forgiven for thinking that Papa Westray is the daddy of the two but it is in fact much smaller, just four square miles compared to Westray’s 18. The name Papa comes from the monastery it once housed. These days the monks are long gone and its population of around 75 now
To take the world’s shortest scheduled flight you first have to get to Kirkwall, capital of the Orkney Islands. Loganair operates services to Kirkwall from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Inverness. Passengers can also travel from a range of airports throughout the UK via the airline’s codeshare arrangement with British Airways. Book at loganair. co.uk or britishairways.com
Dominic stayed at the Ayre Hotel in Kirkwall (ayrehotel. co.uk) courtesy of visitorkney.com