The world’s shortest scheduled flight: Westray to Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands

Board, buckle up, engines up – and hardly has the little aircraft lifted off before it touches down again. Between the Orkney islands of Westray and Papa Westray, Loganair flies the world’s shortest scheduled flight: about 2.7 kilometers, about a minute and a half according to the timetable. For aviation fans, the route is a must on the wish list; for the people on the islands, it is a perfectly ordinary everyday connection. This article explains how the record flight came about, which aircraft flies it, how you book it and what to watch for on board and on the ground.

The short answer

The world’s shortest scheduled flight connects Westray with Papa Westray, two small islands in the north of the Orkney Islands off Scotland’s north coast. The route is about 2.7 kilometers long – roughly as long as the main runway at Edinburgh Airport. The operator is the Scottish regional airline Loganair, one of the best-known regional airlines in Europe, and the aircraft is a Britten-Norman Islander. According to Loganair, the sector usually takes about 90 seconds; the actual flight time is often only about a minute. The record is held by a flight of 53 seconds, attributed to pilot Stuart Linklater.

Two islands, two airfields

Westray and Papa Westray lie side by side in the far north of the archipelago, separated by a narrow strait. Both islands have an airfield of their own, both are operated by the Orkney Islands Council, and both are, according to their airfield licenses, not approved for night operations.

	Westray	Papa Westray
Codes (IATA/ICAO)	WRY / EGEW	PPW / EGEP
Location	Aikerness in the north of Westray	about 44 km north of Kirkwall
Runways	09/27 (527 m, compacted gravel), 13/31 (457 m, grass)	03/21 (527 m, gravel), 06/24 (293 m, gravel), 17/35 (406 m, grass)
Scheduled destinations	Kirkwall, Papa Westray	Kirkwall, Westray, North Ronaldsay

Several short runways in different directions are worth their weight in gold on windy islands: A small aircraft prefers to land directly into the wind, and in Orkney it often blows hard. How closely wind and runway choice are linked is shown in the guide to crosswind landings. The runway number also tells you the rough compass direction here, so 09/27 is an east-west axis – more on this in the article on runway designations.

A curiosity on the side: Westray used to have a crosswind runway 01/19 with a landing distance of only 234 meters, which was considered the world’s shortest commercially used runway. It is no longer in operation today.

Papa Westray: small, old, famous

Papa Westray – often simply called “Papay” in Orkney – is an island of about 9 square kilometers and, according to the 2022 census, a good 90 inhabitants. Despite its size, it has plenty to offer. The Knap of Howar is a Neolithic farmstead from around 3500 BC and is considered one of the oldest preserved houses in northern Europe. The north of the island around North Hill is an RSPB bird reserve where Arctic terns and Arctic skuas breed. Add the restored church of St Boniface from the 12th century and numerous archaeological sites. This very mix explains who is sitting on the plane.

How the record flight came about

Scheduled service between the Orkney islands began in autumn 1967. Loganair started in September with three islands, and Westray was added in October. On Papa Westray, the runway was extended beforehand and stone walls on the site were removed. On December 4, 1967, the connection between Westray and Papa Westray went into operation – and was thus the world’s shortest scheduled flight from the start.

Since then, Loganair has flown the route without interruption. That is remarkable, because the Inter-Isles flights are not a purely commercial undertaking: The Orkney Islands Council tenders them as a subsidized public service obligation. In 2025, Loganair was awarded the contract again, according to publicly available information with a term until March 2029. The airline itself speaks of a “lifeline” connection, that is, a lifeline for the islands: The flights bring people to work, to school, to the doctor and to go shopping.

The Britten-Norman Islander

The aircraft behind the record is a classic of island aviation. The Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander was developed by John Britten and Desmond Norman and first flew on June 13, 1965. It was originally built in Bembridge on the Isle of Wight, later also in Romania and Belgium; in 2023, production returned to Britain. Well over a thousand have been built worldwide.

What makes the Islander ideal for Orkney:

• Short-takeoff capability: It needs only a few hundred meters and copes with gravel and grass runways too.
• Robust technology: Two piston engines with propellers, fixed nose-wheel landing gear and a simple, boxy fuselage. Nothing has to be retracted, and little can break.
• High wing: The wing sits on top of the fuselage. For passengers, that means a free view down onto islands and sea.
• One pilot, few seats: Loganair uses the Islander in Orkney with seven passenger seats. If you sit in front, you look right over the pilot’s shoulder.

In everyday spotting, the Islander is a rather rare subject. If you want to know how to tell small propeller aircraft apart, the guide Recognizing light aircraft helps. Loganair’s Islanders carry British registrations with “G-” – how they are structured and where you look them up is covered in the article on British G- registrations.

How the flight goes

The Westray–Papa Westray sector is usually part of a small round trip from Kirkwall. Loganair gives the chain Kirkwall – Westray – Papa Westray – Kirkwall as an example. The Islander thus takes off in Kirkwall, lands on Westray, hops across to Papa Westray and flies back from there to the main island. Which direction is flown when depends on the day of the week: According to the most recently published timetables, there are flights in both directions on weekdays and only one each at the weekend. So always check Loganair’s current seasonal timetable, because times can change at short notice.

The flight itself is quickly told: taxi to the takeoff position, takeoff roll, short climb, and Papa Westray is already in sight. The Islander does not reach a cruising altitude in the usual sense. For comparison: How high and how long it goes at the other end of the spectrum is shown by the article on ultra-long-haul flights, in which aircraft stay in the air for many hours at a stretch.

The flight time varies with the wind. With a strong headwind, the hop takes longer; with a tailwind or a favorably placed runway, it goes faster. Record times like the 53 seconds are only possible under especially favorable conditions.

Booking the flight: how it works

The sector is a perfectly normal scheduled ticket. But there are a few rules you should know for your plan to work out.

A special feature is the Sightseer fares: a round trip from Kirkwall on the same scheduled flight but without a stay on the islands. According to Loganair, they can only be booked by phone on the day of travel and depending on available seats. Important: The Westray–Papa Westray sector is only flown if bookings require a stop on both islands. We deliberately don’t give specific prices here because they change – look them up when booking.

Photographing on board and on the ground

In an Islander, you get a window seat almost automatically – but not automatically a good photo. The wing sits on top, the engines hang right next to you, and the flight is so short that you have no time to adjust settings.

• Set up beforehand: Choose exposure and focus on the ground. How to shoot through Plexiglas without reflections is explained in the guide Photographing from the airplane window.
• Keep the side in mind: Think beforehand about which side the neighboring island and the sea will be on, and ask politely whether a seat on that side is free. Basics on choosing a seat are in the article Choosing the best window seat for photos.
• Propellers in the picture: With a very short exposure time you freeze the blades; with a longer one you get a propeller disc. When which works is covered in Photographing propellers.
• Video instead of burst: At 60 to 90 seconds, a continuous clip from the takeoff roll to touchdown is often the nicer memory.
• Photographing on the ground: Both airfields are small and easy to survey. Photograph only from publicly accessible areas and follow the instructions of airfield staff.

On the island, always follow the signs on site and don’t enter runways or aprons. An airfield remains an airfield, even if it consists only of gravel and grass.

Orkney as a spotting destination

A single flight doesn’t exhaust Orkney. If you’re traveling to Scotland anyway, you can combine several unusual destinations. In the Outer Hebrides, Loganair’s Twin Otter lands on a beach on schedule – more on this in the article Barra: scheduled flights landing on the beach and in the spot profile Barra Airport beach. The starting point for that is Glasgow Airport.

That gives you two of the world’s best-known curiosity routes in one country. Similarly spectacular, if for completely different reasons, are short mountain runways such as Lukla in Nepal or the altiports in the Alps around Courchevel. If you want to keep filling your list, you’ll find inspiration in the bucket list of spotting spots worldwide and in the tips on plane spotting on vacation.

Conclusion

The flight from Westray to Papa Westray is a genuine piece of aviation history: in service since 1967, about 2.7 kilometers long, a scheduled 90 seconds short. Behind the record, though, is no publicity stunt but a lifeline for two small islands, carried by the robust Britten-Norman Islander and Loganair’s Inter-Isles network. If you want to experience it, plan it as part of an Orkney trip, book the sector with boarding and exit on the two islands and keep your luggage small. The minute in the air passes quickly, but you’ll be telling the story for a long time.