Austrian airline Fly Niki will be launching new flights from Bratislava from April 2015 [CORRECTED], including the shortest international commercial flight on the planet, between Bratislava and Vienna.
The trip, which should only take about ten minutes of flight, will be operated six times a week and will be used mostly as a transfer service accompanying other Fly Niki flights. Even though the journey between the Slovak and Austrian capitals takes just 40 minutes or so by car or bus, and so is quicker than taking the flight, some people will still welcome the connection, for the shear curiosity at least.
The idea will help Fly Niki offer flights from Bratislava to elsewhere in the world. Head of Fly Niki Christian Lesjak explained that passengers will buy one ticket but be given two boarding passes.
The company also plans to introduce direct flights from Bratislava to Brussels (6 days a week) and Majorca (3 days a week), for instance, with the planned launch of the new routes set for April 2015.
What an environmental disaster! This is also a waste of fossil fuels as a take off for such a short hop would by far use most of the trip fuel. Furthermore, this will certainly not be in the long-term growth interest of Bratislava Airport. Such a flight (and it could lead to others) could siphon off Slovak passengers from their own airport and route then via Vienna. There are environmentally-friendly alternatives that have a proved track record that get people between both airports/cities (bus and rail). I do not like this move by Niki one bit.
🙁
Any idea what type of aircraft will be used for such short flights?
The smallest one listed on their fleet is the Embraer 190, which may be way too much of an airplane for this job 🙂