Springfield, Illinois to St. Louis, Missouri. According to expedia.com, the airports are 86 miles apart. I have a rather hard time believing that, as it’s a 100 mile drive from exit 100B (the exit you would take for the Springfield airport) just to the Mississippi River bridge; it’s a good 10-15 miles from the bridge to the airport.
So anyway, between 86 - 115 miles, depending upon whom you believe. Takes about 40 minutes.
About the Westray/Papa Westray flight: is there some reason they can’t use boats for the journey between the islands?
Gustavus (Glacier Bay)-Juneau, Alaska. Alaska Airlines promotes this as the shortest scheduled jet (737) service in America. 41 miles, 12 minutes (IIRC) take off to touchdown.
There is no simple answer to these questions, but I’ll give it a shot since I’m at work and not doing anything.
Non-Stops are the most desirable flights, therefore the most expensive. It’s usually less expensive to fly through a city than to it.
For example, your Denver flight. Flying PHL-MSP-DEN, I’m guessing on Northwest, is probably cheaper than flying US Air or United PHL-DEN. In fact, Flying just PHL-MSP is probably more expensive on Nothwest than continuing on to Denver. If You flew United or Delta through Chicago or Cincinnati to Minneapolis, that would probably be cheaper than PHL-MSP non-stop on Northwest. It all has to do with hubs. A city with a arline hub tends to have higher prices because of less competition. Philadelphia is a Hub for US Air; Denver for United. So those are your only options for non stops. The same “logic” applys for PHL-DAY vs. BWI-PHL-DAY.
If I knew how to do font sizes, I’d make this really big: YMMV!
The main purpose of the flight isn’t to link the two islands, but to link each of them to the ‘mainland’ at Kirkwall.
Okay, so it’s the first two stops on a longer flight. That makes sense.
It certainly makes sense compared to a sand runway!