Austrian Airline Claims to Have Launched the World's Shortest International Flight

Attention, travelers (and Guinness World Records officials): Austrian airline People's Viennaline claims to have launched the world’s shortest international flight. The Points Guy reports that the trip—which transports passengers 13 miles from St. Gallen, Switzerland to Friedrichshafen, Germany—takes only eight minutes.

The regularly scheduled, twice-daily flights will officially began on November 2, 2016. Passengers will fly on a 50-seat Embraer 135 jet, and tickets will cost around $45 (including taxes and fees).

St. Gallen (which serves as capital city of the canton of the same name) is a little over an hour’s drive away from Friedrichshafen, a German industrial center. The two are separated by Lake Constance, and the car trip around the body of water is about 47 miles long. In contrast, People's Viennaline’s new flight zips directly across the lake—a route that’s only 13 or so miles.

The airline isn’t simply trying to provide day-trippers with an easier journey, or worm its way into the record books: According to The Daily Mail, People's Viennaline wants to use the eight-minute journey as a feeder flight so travelers can connect with their Friedrichshafen-Cologne route.

Curious which airline holds the current record for shortest domestic flight? That would be Loganair’s mile-long journey from Westray to Papa Westray in Scotland's Orkey Islands. The trip takes 47 seconds, and covers a little over a mile. In contrast, the world's longest nonstop flight goes all the way from New Zealand to Dubai, and takes more than 17 hours.

[h/t The Points Guy]

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