It is just a windsock, and a hut, and a gravel runway.

僅由一個風向標、一個小屋，以及一條礫石跑道組成。

I didn't pick a great day to travel to this tiny little island.

我沒有選到一個適合小島旅行的日子。

The rain is going to return in just a few minutes, but it's still been a nice little trip out to visit the world's oldest still standing house.

幾分鐘後又要下雨了，但參觀世上現存最古老的房屋仍然是次不錯的體驗。

-It's raining sideways.

-風雨好大。

And also watch some seabirds from quite a distance.

我還賞了海鳥，從有點距離的地方。

That's a bird.

那是隻鳥。

That's a bird.

那是隻鳥。

That is also a bird.

那也是隻鳥。

But leaving here,

但想離開這裡，

I'm taking the world's shortest commercial flight from this airport to the next island, a mile away,

我要乘坐世界上最短的民航，從這個機場到下一個一英里遠的島。

which sounded like a great video.

聽起來是個不錯的影片題材。

But as I started to write the script, I found some problems.

但當我開始寫劇本時，我發現了些問題。

It's a commercial flight and it's August 2021 as I record this, so masks are required, which won't look great.

這是民航班機，我錄影的時間是 2021 年 8 月，所以得戴口罩，會不太好看。

And the planes in use on this route are incredibly loud and rattly.

而且這條航線的飛機噪音大得離譜。

You wouldn't hear a thing.

講話一定聽不到。

And I'm not going to be the jackass who's vlogging on a tiny little plane with other passengers on it,

我也不想成為在小飛機上影響其他乘客，堅持錄影片的蠢貨。

loudly talking and bothering people and accidentally poking a selfie stick in someone's face.

我不會大聲說話打擾別人，還不小心用自拍杆戳到別人的臉。

I'm just going to swap this GoPro out for a 360-camera,

我會換成用 GoPro 360 度全景相機拍，

and just record voiceover afterwards.

事後再配音。

But a video about commercial aviation logistics, using voiceover?

但一支民航相關影片，用配音的？

Well, that doesn't sound like me.

這聽起來不像我會做的事。

That sounds like something that the Wendover Productions channel would do.

這聽起來像是 Wendover Productions 頻道會做的事。

So, Sam?

所以，Sam？

Hey there, Tom!

你好啊，Tom！

I'm going to leave this up to you.

我打算把這個問題留給你解決。

I'm going to go catch my flight.

我要去趕飛機了。

Spanning a distance of 1.7 miles or 2.7 km over some 80-or-so seconds,

在大約 80 秒左右的時間內跨越 1.7 英里或 2.7 公里的距離，

the flight Tom's about to take might seem an affront to logic, economics, environmentalism and more.

Tom 即將乘坐的航班似乎是對邏輯、經濟學、環保主義等等的侮辱。

But the world's shortest flight has a very real purpose for very real people.

但這個世界上最短航班有著非常真實的目的。

You see, the Orkney Islands are a sparsely-populated archipelago.

奧克尼群島是個人煙稀少的群島。

The vast majority of their 22,000-strong population lives on what's known, despite its island status, as the "mainland,"

他們的 22,000 名人口中的絕大多數生活在所謂的「大陸」上，儘管它仍是坐島嶼，

leaving only about 4,000 on the outer islands.

外島只剩下大約 4,000 人。

These outer islanders need ways of getting to the mainland, of course,

當然，這些外島居民需要前往本島的途徑，

but bridges are expensive, especially over some of the longer inter-island spans in the Orkneys.

但是橋樑很昂貴，尤其是在奧克尼群島的一些較長的島際跨度上。

And while ferries do operate throughout the archipelago,

雖然渡輪運營橫跨整個群島，

they're slow and lack a direct connection to onward travel.

但它們很慢，而且缺乏點到點直接聯繫。

Therefore, the answer is airplanes.

因此，飛機是解答。

Of course, flying is expensive.

當然，飛行很昂貴。

And in the world of commercial aviation, it's typically the case that the lower the demand,

而且就民航而言，通常需求越低，

the more expensive it is for an airline to operate a route on a per passenger basis.

每位乘客須負擔成本就越高。

That's because smaller destinations lack the economies of scale afforded by operating larger airplanes more frequently at larger airports.

這是因為較小的目的地缺乏像大型機場頻繁飛大型航班那樣的經濟規模。

So air service to places with 600 or 90 residents, like Westray and Papa Westray, is essentially impossible on a free market basis.

因此，在自由市場的基礎上，基本是不可能提供韋斯特雷島和帕帕韋斯特雷島這種只有 600 或 90 名居民的地方航空服務的。

The fares would be enormous per passenger, meaning people wouldn't choose to fly,

每張票價將會很高，這意味著人們不會選擇搭飛機，

meaning there wouldn't be enough passengers to fill a plane.

代表不會有足夠的乘客來填滿飛機。

Therefore, flights to Westray and Papa Westray are subsidized through the UK's public service obligation scheme,

因此，飛往韋斯特雷島和帕帕韋斯特雷島的航班是英國公共服務義務計劃津貼資助的。

meaning only a small portion of Loganir's revenue is earned through selling the flight's £17 or £18 tickets.

也就是說，洛根航空的營收只有小部分來自每張 17 或 18 英鎊機票。

Still, filling a nine-passenger plane to Papa Westray, in particular, with its 90-person population would be difficult.

儘管如此，在帕帕韋斯特雷島人口只有 90 人的情況下，想讓 9 人座飛機滿座仍十分困難。

Even at rock bottom prices, price elasticity only goes so far.

即使票價已處最低點，也不是非常低。

Therefore, Loganair uses a network design referred to as a "milk run."

所以，洛根航空採用了一叫「迴圈運輸」的方式。

Essentially, it means operating a plane like a bus or train.

基本上，這就是像開公車或火車那樣開飛機。

In this case, the BN-2 Islander aircraft leaves Kirkwall, the largest town in the Orkneys, with passengers destined for Papa Westray and Westray.

也就是，BN-2 島民飛機飛離奧克尼群島最大城鎮柯克沃爾後，會載著乘客前往帕帕韋斯特雷島和韋斯特雷島。

Then it lands in Papa Westray,

然後，飛機在帕帕韋斯特雷島降落，

drops off any passengers destined for that island, and picks up any passengers traveling to Westray and Kirkwall.

讓要去該島的乘客下機，並載要前往韋斯特雷和柯克沃爾的乘客起飛。

Next, it flies those 80 or so seconds to Westray,

接者，花 80 多秒飛到韋斯特雷島。

drops off its passengers, and picks up any final travelers headed for Kirkwall.

放下乘客，接上最後幾個前往柯克沃爾的旅客。

This way, it aggregates the cumulative demand of two islands onto one flight,

這個方法可以將兩個島嶼的需求彙總到單一班機上。

allowing for operations to each more regularly than if they both had dedicated flights.

如此，與兩島各有專門的航班相比，可以更定期地照顧到每個島嶼。

Altogether, this means the only people that might take the flight exclusively between Papa Westray and Westray are aviation enthusiasts

總而言之，這意味著會乘坐往返帕帕韋斯特雷島和韋斯特雷島之間航班的只剩航空迷

and tourists who make the pilgrimage to fly on the world's shortest commercial flight.

和朝聖世界上最短民航的遊客。

Tom, however, is returning to Kirkwall.

而 Tom 將會回到柯克沃爾。

Sam, thank you so much.

Sam 謝謝你。

There's a link to Sam's channel, Wendover Productions, in the description and on screen.

前往 Sam 的頻道，Wendover Productions 的連結在描述欄和螢幕上。

And sure enough, the plane spent two minutes on the ground

不出所料，飛機在地面停留了兩分鐘，

while one passenger disembarked and the pilot filled out some paperwork,

一名乘客下機時，機長填寫了些文件，

and then we were off in the air again.

接著我們再次升空。