Feature27 SEP 20263 min readDromopedia editors

The ninety-second flight

Between Westray and Papa Westray in Orkney, an eight-seat Islander covers 2.7 km in about a minute and a half. It is the shortest scheduled flight in the world — and a lifeline, not a stunt.

Papa Westray Airport
Papa Westray Airport · Me677 · Public domain · Commons

Two islands in the north of Orkney, Westray and Papa Westray, are about 2.7 km apart across Papa Sound.1 Loganair flies between them. The timetable allows two minutes for the flight, and in the air it usually takes around ninety seconds.23 Guinness World Records lists it as the shortest domestic scheduled flight in the world.1

The record belongs to Stuart Linklater, who flew the route more than 12,000 times over 24 years: 53 seconds from one island to the other. When he retired in 2013, aged 59, Loganair said he still held the record.4

WRYWestray Airport GB · 9 M / 29 FT · RWY 527 M / 1,729 FTRunway 09/27, 527 × 18 m of graded hardcore. About 2.7 km from Papa Westray.

One leg of a round trip

The hop is never flown on its own. It is one leg of a loop from Kirkwall, the main airport of Orkney. In the morning the Islander flies Kirkwall – Westray – Papa Westray – Kirkwall, and in the afternoon the same loop in reverse. The short leg runs only "when passenger bookings require the aircraft to call at both islands". Anyone who wants to log the famous flight must book Westray – Papa Westray itself.2 In summer 2026 there is a morning flight from Westray to Papa Westray from Monday to Saturday. The flight back runs in the afternoon, Monday to Friday and on Sunday.3

The aircraft is a Britten-Norman Islander: eight seats, one of them the pilot's, so seven for passengers.2 Loganair has flown the inter-island network since September 1967, and Papa Westray was added that December.51 Today the service runs under a public service contract with Orkney Islands Council, from April 2025 to March 2029. It sets minimum frequencies and maximum fares for six islands: Eday, North Ronaldsay, Papa Westray, Sanday, Stronsay and Westray.6

Why fly at all

Papa Westray, known locally as Papay, has fewer than a hundred residents.7 It is also home to the Knap of Howar, a pair of stone houses built around 3300 BC, among the oldest standing stone buildings in north-west Europe.8 A small ferry for foot passengers crosses from Pierowall on Westray in about 15 minutes in summer. In winter the crossing takes 20 minutes, and many sailings run only on request.9

The flights carry what small islands depend on. Loganair lists education, healthcare and the mail, and adds that the shortest flight has become "one of the islands' tourist attractions in its own right".10 The council's traffic figures show the scale. In 2022/23 some 4,900 passengers flew to or from Papa Westray, almost all of them on flights to and from Kirkwall. Across the whole network, 838 journeys were made between islands, a figure that includes but is not limited to the two-minute hop.11

PPWPapa Westray Airport GB · 28 M / 91 FT · RWY 527 M / 1,729 FTRunway 03/21, 527 × 18 m of graded hardcore. Fewer than a hundred residents on the island.

The airfields

The Orkney island airfields are owned and run by the council. They are open by day only, for visual flying, with prior permission. Their main runways are 527 m long and 18 m wide, and none of them is asphalt: they are "graded hardcore", compacted crushed stone. Each has one or two grass strips across it. The UK AIP warns that the hardcore runways are "generally unsuitable for light aircraft with low ground/propeller clearance".1213

Shorter runways, longer flights

The shortest flight is not flown from the shortest runway. That record is usually given to Saba, in the Dutch Caribbean. Its single runway is 401 m long for take-off and about 350 m for landing, and 19.5 m wide.14 Winair flies DHC-6 Twin Otters there from St Maarten, a trip of about 15 minutes.15 The first aircraft landed on 9 February 1959, and scheduled service began on 24 July 1963.16

SABJuancho E. Yrausquin Airport BQ · 18 M / 60 FT · RWY 400 M / 1,312 FTRunway 12/30: about 400 m for take-off, 350 m for landing. Twin Otters from St Maarten.

Some runways that look shorter on paper have no scheduled flights at all. Baltrum, a German island in the North Sea, has a stone-paved runway of 360 m. The small airline based there flies on demand, not to a timetable.17 Helgoland-Düne has had no scheduled flights since the spring of 2025.18 The register marks neither as having airline service, so its list of the shortest runways with airline service opens with Saba.19

Sources

  1. Guinness World Records, "Shortest domestic scheduled flight": 2.74 km (1.7 miles). Guinness dates the Papa Westray service to 1 December 1967; English Wikipedia, citing the Aberdeen Press and Journal, to 4 December. 2 3

  2. Loganair, Orkney inter-isles. 2 3

  3. Loganair, summer 2026 timetable, 16 February – 24 October 2026: for example, Westray 09:02 – Papa Westray 09:04. 2

  4. BBC News, "Pilot of world's shortest scheduled flight retires", 25 May 2013. Other reports quote shorter times without naming a pilot.

  5. Loganair, our history.

  6. Orkney Islands Council, "Loganair Ltd to continue operation of lifeline inter-island air service".

  7. Orkney Islands Council, "Papay: a close-knit community with a can-do attitude searches for new head teacher", February 2023: "around 85". The 2022 census figure given by the Scottish Government's islands data is 95.

  8. A. Moore, G. Wilson, reassessment of the Knap of Howar, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. 154, 2025, summary by the Ness of Brodgar project; Historic Environment Scotland, Knap of Howar. The older date of about 3700 BC is superseded.

  9. Orkney Ferries, Papa Westray – Pierowall, summer 2026 and winter 2026/27.

  10. Loganair, "Loganair selected as Orkney inter-isles transport provider for further four years", January 2025.

  11. Orkney Islands Council, inter-island air services, report of 26 March 2024: Papa Westray 4,937 passengers and inter-island journeys 838 in 2022/23. No figure is published for the Westray – Papa Westray leg alone.

  12. UK AIP, AD 2 EGEW Westray, AIRAC of 3 September 2026.

  13. UK AIP, AD 2 EGEP Papa Westray, AIRAC of 3 September 2026.

  14. Dutch Caribbean ANSP, TNCS aerodrome chart, effective 23 February 2023: take-off distance 401 m, landing distance 348 m (runway 12) and 351 m (runway 30).

  15. Winair, flights from Sint Maarten to Saba.

  16. Will Johnson, "Fifty years of air service to Saba", The Saba Islander, 2013.

  17. Baltrum Flug, airfield information (in German); fliegermagazin, "Baltrum Flug: das ist Deutschlands kleinste Airline", 6 February 2024 (in German).

  18. aeroTELEGRAPH, report of 28 August 2026 (in German).

  19. Dromopedia register: Shortest runways with airline service. Runway lengths and the scheduled-service flag come from OurAirports; for Baltrum and Helgoland-Düne the editors have corrected the flag, with references on their data pages (Baltrum, Helgoland-Düne). Graded hardcore counts as gravel, so the Orkney strips are not in this list of paved runways.

Codes, elevations and runway lengths in the airport cards are from the Dromopedia register, built from OurAirports. Each entry’s data page names the source of every field; see also About the data.