A European airline has launched the world’s shortest international flight, which clocks in at a mere eight minutes. The flight connects travelers between St Gallen-Altenrhein in Switzerland with Friedrichshafen in southern Germany, a part of a leg that continues on to Cologne in German.
The flight is only about $44, but not everyone is thrilled about it. The Swiss Green Party worries that the flights will be putting too much of a burden on the environment, but proponents argue that the alternative of an hour drive around the lake would create just as many harmful emissions as the eight minute flight would.
Eight minutes is a pretty impressive hop, but it’s got nothing on the shortest domestic flights. In Scotland there is a flight between the villages of Westray and Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands…and it can be completed in under a minute. The Loganair flight says that it’s 120 seconds but when the wind cooperates the trip can be made in 47 seconds. The distance of that flight is actually shorter than many runways at larger airports.
