Paris-Saint Pierre flights: This route you've never heard of just sold out

Tickets from Paris to Saint Pierre have sold like hot cakes - much to experts' surprise

Saint Pierre and Miquelon Flag

The first ever weekly transatlantic flight between Paris and Saint Pierre, located just off Newfoundland, is booked up for the entire summer season.

The niche nonstop service between France and the eastern coast of Canada runs from 2 July 21 to August, with the six hour and 30 minute flight operating westbound on Mondays and eastbound on Tuesdays.

Instant ticketing was unavailable for these unexpectedly popular flights and potential passengers were required to express interest by sending off an email enquiry to Air Saint-Pierre.

The flight is reported to be weight restricted due to a short runway in Saint Pierre.

This journey between Metropolitan France and its prefecture is usually long and expensive, and the popularity of the direct route suggests a significant demand for a continued service in the region.

Saint Pierre and Miquelon is a small self-governing French province located in the north-western Atlantic Ocean close to Newfoundland and Labrador, with a population of just over 6,000 inhabitants.

The islands have extremely limited air provision and no Canadian airlines fly to there, leaving Air Saint-Pierre to service the diminutive community. The airline has just a single Boeing 737 aircraft in its fleet, which it has leased for the duration of the service.

One Mile at a Time travel blogger Lucky, aka Ben Schlappig, reported on the unusual service back in December, expressing doubt that the route would generate any interest. He told The Independent: “This is indeed quite an intriguing flight.

“While I expected there would be some interest in this nonstop flight, it seemed to me like there were a lot of things working against the route - the flight is only once weekly (limiting flexibility for passengers), it’s to a territory with just 6,000 people, it has to take off weight due to the short runway in Saint Pierre, and it has some government subsidies, which suggested to me that they weren’t expecting the route to be a success.

“The fact that this flight is completely sold out is almost hard to believe, but I guess they started something here that has never been done before. I imagine this is an exciting route for anyone from the islands, since it’s the first nonstop link between Saint Pierre and Metropolitan France.

“Getting between the two was previously outrageously expensive and time consuming, so I guess this piqued just enough interest to make the route such a success. I still can’t believe (and am still quite suspicious) that they’ve sold every last seat.”

Other unusual routes include an 80 second flight between Westray and Papa Westray in the Orkney Islands, which is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s shortest flight.