The longest flights in the world are always the most eye catchy and title catchy ones. However the shortest flights are just as interesting as some times the distances are so small it might be counterintuitive to operate a flight on the route. So today I’ll be covering which is the world’s shortest commercial international flight.
Which Is The World’s Shortest Commercial International Flight?
If you were interested in experiencing this very special flight you would have to head not to some tropical island but to Africa. Specifically your destination would have to be the two Congos, the Republic of the Congo e and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
These two countries share a border along the Congo river with each of the country’s capital on its shores just a few hundred meters apart. This is where the world’s shortest commercial international flight takes place, between Kinshasa and Brazzaville.
The linear distance between the two airports is a mere 16 miles. However the track miles of the flights are more than those. With such a short distance to cover on this regularly scheduled flight the time to cover the distance is just over 15 minutes.
Who Operates The Flight And Why?
So you might be thinking that it might be served by some small turboprop plane, but that is not the case. The flight has multiple daily connections with services offered by the likes of:
- Air France
- Royal Air Maroc
- Asky Airlines
So why do these 3 airlines operate such a short flight? Does it even make sense? Well turns out it does. Airlines wouldn’t be operating the flight if it didn’t.
The reason for the existence of this flight is quite simple. It can be difficult for airlines to fill up a plane in either Kinshasa or Brazzaville alone. Therefore instead of operating 2 distinct services to 2 neighbouring destinations they have combined them into 1.
- Asky operates it as part of its itinerary from Lome in Togo as flight number KP45.
- Royal Air Maroc operates it as part of its itinerary from Casablanca as flight number AT297
- Air France operates it as part of its itinerary from Paris under flight numbers AF736 and AF754
Some Big Planes on The Shortest International Flight
Despite the 16 mile distance between the two airports the nature of the services that serve the route means that it is covered by some big planes.
Both Royal Air Maroc and Asky fly the route using their Boeing 737s. On the other hand Air France, having to fly in from Paris operates the route using its largest plane, the Boeing 777-300ER. Therefore the world’s shortest commercial flight is also served by one of the largest commercial planes around.
Add Comment