Far Off
The shortest scheduled flight in the world runs between Westray and Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands: 2.8 km great-circle, ninety seconds in the timetable, 53 seconds on the record run. Here are the ten shortest commercial routes currently operating, ranked by great-circle distance between airfields.
| # | Route | Where | Airline | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Westray – Papa Westray | Scotland | Loganair | 2.8 km |
| 2 | Sanday – Stronsay | Scotland | Loganair | 11 km |
| 3 | Sanday – North Ronaldsay | Scotland | Loganair | 15 km |
| 4 | Connemara – Inis Meáin | Ireland | Aer Arann Islands | 17 km |
| 5 | Connemara – Inis Mór | Ireland | Aer Arann Islands | 19 km |
| 6 | Anguilla – Sint Maarten | Caribbean | Anguilla Air Services | 19 km |
| 7 | Papa Westray – North Ronaldsay | Scotland | Loganair | 26 km |
| 8 | St Barthélemy – Sint Maarten | Caribbean | Winair, St Barth Commuter | 32 km |
| 9 | Saba – Sint Maarten | Caribbean | Winair | 45 km |
| 10 | Land’s End – St Mary’s | England | Isles of Scilly Skybus | 49 km |
Two warnings before the list. No aviation body maintains an official shortest-flight ranking, so any list reflects the networks that publish usable timetables rather than the world as it is. And this ranking turns over faster than the long-haul one, because an island route lives or dies on a renewable public service contract. Distances below are computed great-circle from published aerodrome coordinates and rounded to the kilometre.
1. Westray to Papa Westray, 2.8 km
Loganair has flown the pair since 4 December 1967. The timetable allows a minute and a half; real airborne time is closer to a minute, taxi included. The unofficial record of 53 seconds belongs to Stuart Linklater, who flew the route more than 12,000 times before retiring in 2013.
Detail. The aircraft is an eight-seat Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander. This is not a novelty run. It belongs to Orkney’s lifeline network, funded under a public service obligation, and carries people to hospital appointments, school and work. A ferry covers roughly three miles of the same water in twenty-five minutes.
2. Sanday to Stronsay, 11 km
Still Orkney, still Loganair. The route links two islands in the north-east of the archipelago across 11 km, slotted into the multi-stop rotations that begin at Kirkwall.
Detail. These inter-isles services work as loops rather than out-and-back pairs: one aircraft strings together three or four landings in a morning. None of the airfields involved is licensed for night use, which squeezes the winter schedule into a few daylight hours.
3. Sanday to North Ronaldsay, 15 km
North Ronaldsay is the northernmost of the Orkney islands, about 32 miles from Kirkwall. The hop from Sanday covers 15 km.
Detail. A few dozen people live on North Ronaldsay year round. The aircraft is the only dependable link for much of the year: the ferry from Kirkwall takes over two hours and runs only a handful of times a week, weather permitting.
4. Connemara to Inis Meáin, 17 km
Aer Arann Islands flies from Connemara Airport at Inverin, County Galway, to all three Aran Islands. Inis Meáin, the middle island, is the closest at 17 km, and the crossing takes under ten minutes.
Detail. The airline quotes an average of eight minutes across its rotations and flies the Britten-Norman Islander, the same type Orkney uses. The service nearly ended in 2018, when Aer Arann Islands announced it would terminate its public service contract before a deal was struck with the Irish government.
5. Connemara to Inis Mór, 19 km
Inis Mór is the largest and busiest of the Aran Islands. The flight from Connemara covers 19 km onto a 490 m paved runway.
Detail. Traffic at Inis Mór peaked at 12,393 passengers in 2013 and has not recovered to that level. Most visitors still take the ferry from Rossaveal; the aircraft mainly serves residents and light freight, which is why the route survives on subsidy rather than tourism.
6. Anguilla to Sint Maarten, 19 km
This is the shortest scheduled international flight in the world. Anguilla Air Services and Trans Anguilla Airways connect Clayton J. Lloyd International to Princess Juliana International across 19 km of water, in under ten minutes.
Detail. The two islands are only 7.2 km apart at their closest points, but each airport sits on the far side of its own island, roughly tripling the distance flown. The trip crosses from a British Overseas Territory into a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, passport check included, on a flight shorter than most bus rides.
7. Papa Westray to North Ronaldsay, 26 km
The fourth Scottish route on the list, at 26 km. It joins two of Orkney’s most remote islands without routing back through Kirkwall.
Detail. Without it, getting from Papa Westray to North Ronaldsay would mean a detour to the south of the archipelago. These lateral links are why Orkney takes four of the top ten places: Loganair’s inter-isles operation, serving six islands under a public service obligation, is the densest documented network of very short hops anywhere.
8. St Barthélemy to Sint Maarten, 32 km
Winair and St Barth Commuter fly Gustaf III Airport to Princess Juliana across 32 km. It is the main way into St Barts, which has no long-haul service of its own.
Detail. The runway at Gustaf III is 646 m long and ends on a beach, reached by a steep descent over a hillside gap. Pilots need a specific qualification to land there. The route also crosses a border, French at one end and Dutch at the other, over about thirty kilometres of water.
9. Saba to Sint Maarten, 45 km
Winair is the only airline serving Saba, 45 km from Sint Maarten, with a quoted flight time of no more than fifteen minutes.
Detail. The runway at Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport is 400 m long, the shortest in regular commercial service anywhere, with cliffs on three sides. Only Twin Otter-class aircraft are cleared to use it, flown by specifically qualified crews.
10. Land’s End to St Mary’s, 49 km
Isles of Scilly Skybus connects the tip of Cornwall to the Isles of Scilly across 49 km in about fifteen minutes. It is the only route on this list that crosses genuine open sea.
Detail. Land’s End handled 49,671 passengers in 2024 and St Mary’s 68,086, remarkable volumes for a hop this short. The alternative, the Scillonian ferry from Penzance, takes over two and a half hours and does not run year round, which leaves the aircraft as the only option out of season.
Why these flights exist at all
None of these routes exists to set a record. Almost all are funded by a public service obligation: the state covers the gap between real cost and an affordable fare in exchange for guaranteed frequency. Orkney, the Isles of Scilly and the Aran Islands all run on that model.
The competition is boats, not other planes. Two point eight kilometres in the air takes a minute; the same crossing by ferry takes twenty-five minutes, depends on the swell and forces a connection. On an island of a few hundred people, that gap decides access to healthcare and schooling.
Routes that dropped off the list
Until 1 August 2024, every shortest-flights list included Kitadaito to Minamidaito off Okinawa: 12 km, a little over three minutes airborne, flown by Ryukyu Air Commuter. It was Japan’s shortest domestic route. The airline withdrew it to concentrate on direct services between Okinawa and each of the two islands.
Two more sit just outside the ranking: Lanai to Kahului in Hawaii at 56 km, and Sint Eustatius to Sint Maarten at 62 km. Shorter hops almost certainly operate in the bush networks of Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Alaska, but their schedules are not published in any form you can rank. A global shortest-flight list is incomplete by construction.
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Reference sources: the Wikipedia entry for the Westray to Papa Westray flight and Loganair’s Orkney inter-isles page.
Frequently asked questions
What is the shortest flight in the world?
Westray to Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands, flown by Loganair: 2.8 km between the two airfields, ninety seconds in the timetable and around a minute in the air. The known record is 53 seconds. The service has run since December 1967, and Papa Westray Airport handled roughly 5,000 passengers in 2024.
How much does the world’s shortest flight cost?
It is priced on the Orkney inter-isles fare scale, subsidised under a public service obligation, so it compares to a regional rail ticket rather than an airline fare. Loganair publishes the fares and revises them each season, so check directly with the airline before booking.
What is the shortest international flight in the world?
Anguilla to Sint Maarten, 19 km between airports, operated by Anguilla Air Services and Trans Anguilla Airways in under ten minutes. The islands are only 7.2 km apart at their nearest points, but the two airports sit on opposite coasts, which stretches the flown distance.
Why keep flying routes of a few kilometres?
Because the alternative is not another flight, it is a boat. A ferry that takes twenty-five minutes, depends on the sea state and sails a few times a week does not replace a one-minute flight to a hospital appointment or a school run. These routes are funded by public service contracts precisely because they could never pay for themselves.
Is there an official ranking of the shortest flights?
No. Unlike ratified distance records, no aviation authority publishes one. Existing lists are assembled from airline timetables, which leaves out many poorly documented island and bush networks, notably in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and Alaska. Treat any global ranking as a snapshot of what is documented, not a closed answer.