As any aviation geek can attest to, sometimes the journey can be even more fun than the destination. Over the years there are many flights I’ve been tempted to take simply because they seem ”cool,” for a variety of reasons.
Continue reading: The World’s 15 Best Flights For Aviation Geeks, From Island Hoppers To Showers
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Still waiting for the Island Hopper trip report! It was featured on CNN's Quest Means Business a while ago.
And nothing do with anything, but Cathay's 748F in retro colours just flew to Miami. Just thought I'd let you know!
Some personal favorites: Druk Air from Delhi to Paro; epic views of Mt. Everest each way. Air Tahiti Nui on PPT-BOB. Wild approach on Winair from SXM-SBH. LGA, DCA, LCY, SYD for views of those cities. SFO for parallel landings. ASE for flying into that valley. Seaplanes in Maldives. I can go on…
Oh wow! I didn’t know you went to LYR. I used to live there and actually I was living there when you visited! It was fun seeing those old photos. What a blast from the past. Thank you. And yes I think the Filipino population was around 25 at the time. It doubled by the time I left in the second half of 2017. I was one of them.
Done a couple of these...
Could also have the shortest commercial flight in the US: LUP-MKK. You have to fly it thru from HNL as LUP is still a leper colony and you can't get off the plane there without permission from the Hawaii Department of Health. LUP-MKK is 9 miles while climbing up over the tallest sea cliffs in the world (which is why the peninsula is very hard to access by anything but air - thus where Hawaii had a leper colony).
Your etymology for 'milk run' is incorrect.
Milk runs are named for the circular nature of the trip with many stops, much as a milkman picks up the bottles and delivers the new ones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_run
I'm hoping to visit Utqiagvik (BRW) next year. Northernmost city in the US. Maybe not avgeeky but it would be a cool item to check off the bucket list
Next year you can fly to American places even closer to the North Pole (on Greenland)
There are thousands of military and ex-military aviators, who could relay landings and takeoff situations which would make readers hair curl. Not to mention the half-crown - sixpence effect upon the posterior sphincter. The Walter’s will never know, could never imagine and would never believe it if told.
Of course the fat disgusting Euro-pig is on here. The entire avgeek community fell for Airpus's mind control when it came to that abomination. I'm going to keep fighting the good fight until all of them are boiling in the desert.
Speaking of Antarctica, White Desert runs A330 and A340 charters between CPT and Wolf's Fang Runway for their tours. FR24 did a video series with them last year and the approach into Wolf's Fang is stunning. Definitely watch it if you haven't already, Lucky.
I believe tourists can still take mules down to Kalaupapa. Haven't done it myself, but I think I would freak out regardless of the views. I'd much prefer to fly.
I hope to do the United Island Hopper sooner than later. Bummed that the Excursionist perk no longer applies because that was certainly helpful when I priced things out a few years ago, but ultimately couldn't go.
I love these sorts of things. A few others I can think of which are worth a mention:
• Most southerly airport with commercial service: Puerto Williams Guardiamarina Zañartu Airport, Chile (WPU) - 54°55′52″S
• Most southerly international airport: Ushuaia – Malvinas Argentinas International Airport, Argentina (USH) - 54°50′36″S
• Highest elevation airport with commercial service: Daocheng Yading Airport, China (DCY) - 4,411m (14,472ft)
• Highest elevation international airport: El Alto International Airport, Bolivia (LPB) - 4,062m (13,325ft)
• Lowest elevation airport: Bar Yehuda Airfield, Israel (MTZ) - -378m (-1,240ft)
• Lowest elevation international airport: Atyrau Airport, Kazakhstan (GUW) - -22m (-72ft)
• Longest domestic flight: Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) - Saint-Denis Roland Garros (RUN) (Air France, Air Austral) - 9,349km (5,048nm)
• Shortest international flight: Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo (BZV) - Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (FIH) (Air Côte d’Ivoire, Air France, ASKY Airlines, TAAG Angola Airlines) - 24km (14nm)
V/F
In 2005 I flew LAN to Easter Island from Tahiti on a 767. Back then they flew PPT-IPC-SCL 2X weekly.
Yes, delivering milk in a fixed route with stops.
So when a plane route came to be called called a 'milk run' it's not a supply run (or, of course, we'd see the term used for many nonstop cargo flights as well) but a delivery route that collects or drops off goods at several locations in one loop.
I'd add the flight from Male to any of the resort islands in the Maldives. The ocean is impossibly blue, and the coral atolls are truly stunning to see from the prop plane. As beautiful as it gets!
Most who post herein have no idea of what you write GRK, their ignorance is our bliss …. 🙂
Ben - what about an airline on how to book avgeek flights with points. For example:
- I've been searching for CPT-HLE (Saint-Helena) Airlink flights with avios, now that they partner with Qatar, but with no luck
- LATAM flies from Chile to the Falklands - what's the best deal to fly there with points
- Same question for Svalbard on the SAS flights
- How to fly to Greenland with points?
- Etc.
Heli Air Monaco's flight from Monaco (MCM) to Nice (NCE) is only 12km, assuming helicopter-operated flights count, that's even shorter 🙂
You cannot call yourself an AvGeek without visiting D.P.R. Korea and take a flight operated by a Soviet plane