Margen
Between Westray and Papa Westray, two islands in Orkney, off the north of Scotland, runs the world's shortest scheduled commercial flight: 2.7 kilometres of sea. The official timetable allows about a minute and a half, but with a tailwind the record stands at 53 seconds. Some big airports have runways longer than the entire route.
The eight-seater plane has been covering the hop since 1967. And it is not a tourist attraction — or not only that: it is the local bus. It carries the teacher who works on both islands, the doctor, schoolchildren, neighbours with their shopping. The ferry depends on the state of the sea; a road, quite simply, does not exist.
Take-off and landing almost merge into a single gesture: the plane climbs, levels out, and is already descending. The airline hands passengers a certificate signed by the pilot, a memento of having crossed the briefest sky on the planet.
Sometimes flying is not about going far, but about crossing exactly the stretch of water that separates you from your neighbour.