With a record-breaking eight minutes of flight time, the Austrian People's Air Group commuter plane that carries passengers between Germany and Switzerland is about to have its final trip. During the weekend, the company announced that it will retire the flight and that the last voyage would be on April 14.
According to Travel & Leisure, the flight between Friedrichshafen, South Germany, and St. Gallen-Altenrhein, Switzerland, first soared into the skies in November 2016. During its launching, Austrian People's Air Group CEO Danel Steffen said, "This stopover will benefit both tourists and commuters working on both sides of the lake and, of course, it is also likely to become a must in every aviation enthusiast's logbook."
It serviced passengers by providing two flights every day from Germany to Switzerland and Switzerland to Germany. According to The Local, it was hailed as one of the shortest flights ever having a total of 20km in distance. It beat the Austrian-Slovakian international flight that lasted for only 10 minutes. But as fast as the German-Swiss flight carried its passengers, it will also come to an end after five months of service.
Airport boss Claus-Deiter Wehr said, "The withdrawal of the flight is very regrettable to the region and the Bodensee Friedrichshafen Airport." Even though there were some signs of progress, the company stated that the route wasn't really getting enough passengers and that the costs were getting higher. The targeted number of passengers of the company was 40,000 per year.
The German-Swiss flight wasn't also exempted from criticism coming from environmentalists. There was some controversy stating that the shortness of the flight wasn't cost-efficient and that the amount of fuel used was too much for the duration of the trip. Some people also said that there was too much noise whenever the plane takes off and lands.
