World's shortest international flight: European airline People's Viennaline offers 8-minute flight

We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.

Advertisement

This was published 7 years ago

World's shortest international flight: European airline People's Viennaline offers 8-minute flight

Updated
People's Viennaline plane takes off from the airport on Lake Constance in Friedrichshafen, Germany.

People's Viennaline plane takes off from the airport on Lake Constance in Friedrichshafen, Germany.Credit: AP

An Austrian airline has begun what it claims is the world's shortest regular international connection - an eight-minute hop across Lake Constance.

The flight offered by People's Viennaline connects St. Gallen-Altenrhein in Switzerland with Friedrichshafen in southern Germany. It's part of a route that continues onward to Cologne, but passengers can book only the short part for 40 euros ($A57.53).

An Embraer 145 short-haul jet will connect the Friedrichshafen airport with the Swiss airport Altenrhein. The flight time for the around 20-kilometre-long route between the two regional airport is around eight minutes.

German news agency DPA reported that environmentalists aren't thrilled by the new route, which began service on Wednesday. Swiss Green Party politician Meinrad Gschwend says he wants the flights banned.

The airline says driving around the lake for an hour would produce as much emissions as the short flight.

On Tuesday, Emirates announced it will operate the shortest A380 route in the world flying from Doha to Dubai from December this year.

With a flight distance of only 379km, a one way flight will last for less than an hour and the plane could make almost 20 return flights without refuelling.

WORLD'S LONGEST ROUTE

Emirates also operates one of the longest routes in the world, with an A380 flying between Dubai and Auckland. The title of the "world's longest flight" was recently snatched by Air India for its revised Delhi to San Francisco route.

Advertisement

Flight AI173 now covers a distance of 15,140 kilometres in 14 hours and 30 minutes, claiming the title from Emirates.

Emirates' Dubai-Auckland route is about 14,120km and takes about 16.5 hours.

AP with Fairfax Media

See also: Direct Australia-to-London flights are just around the corner

See also: Qantas unveils new seats, new look for Boeing 787 Dreamliners

Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter

Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.

Most viewed on Traveller

Loading