Well, it looks like this very cool flight is returning for the third year in a row…

Air Saint-Pierre’s Paris Flights

In the summer of 2018 a fascinating domestic transatlantic route launched — it operated seasonally once weekly.

Specifically, ASL Airlines operated a Boeing 737-700 that was marketed by Air Saint-Pierre between Paris and Saint Pierre and Miquelon.

What’s Saint Pierre and Miquelon? It’s a self-governing territory of France, situated in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean, near Newfoundland and Labrador. The islands cover an area of about 93 square miles, and have a population of just about 6,000 people.

The territory’s airline, Air Saint-Pierre, only has turboprops, which aren’t capable of operating the route. So they leased a Boeing 737 to operate the flight once weekly flight.

This was the first time ever that we saw a nonstop link between these territories and mainland France. There were some other things that made this route interesting:

  • The runway in Saint Pierre is only 5,900 feet long, so the plane had to be weight restricted, meaning the flight could only transport at most 100 passengers
  • I had intended to take this flight in 2018, but was shocked to find out that the flight was sold out on almost every single date that it operated; I wasn’t expecting that, especially given that the route was subsidized

The route ended up returning in 2019, with almost exactly the same schedule, times and pricing. Well, now the flight is returning for yet another year.

Paris To Saint Pierre Flights Return In 2020

The once weekly flight between Saint Pierre and Miquelon and Paris will be returning in 2020, between June 22 and September 7, 2020.

The route will once again be operated by an ASL Airlines France Boeing 737-700, and the flight will be marketed and sold by Air Saint-Pierre. The flight will operate westbound on Mondays and eastbound on Tuesdays, as follows:

Paris to Saint Pierre and Miquelon departing 4:00PM arriving 6:30PM
Saint Pierre and Miquelon to Paris departing 10:30AM arriving 8:05PM

As you can see, the plane sits on the ground in Saint Pierre for quite a while. This is so that the crew can get their rest and operate the flight back the next day, rather than making them stay there for over a week.

I imagine the airline was able to get a decent deal on parking at the airport for 16 hours. 😉 It’s also interesting since this is an eastbound daytime flight, which is fairly rare.

Air Saint-Pierre Fares To & From Paris

If you want to book a seat on this flight, here’s the pricing for travel originating in Paris (as you can see, a one-way ticket costs 581.09EUR):

Then here’s the pricing from Saint-Pierre (as you can see, a one-way ticket costs 550EUR):

Online bookings aren’t possible, but you can request a reservation through this link.

I couldn’t make this flight in 2018 due to lack of availability, and in 2019 I couldn’t make it work time-wise, so maybe this should be a goal for 2020?

Bottom Line

I find this Air-Saint Pierre flight to be absolutely fascinating. It’s so cool when airlines not only try a route like this, but it actually succeeds and returns year after year.

While the link between Paris and this French territory is obvious, it’s still kind of cool and surprising that such a small territory can support a flight like this. But I guess the downside was fairly limited, since the route was subsidized from the beginning.

Personally I find this to be the most interesting transatlantic route, with Condor’s Frankfurt to Whitehorse flight being a close second (I took this in the summer of 2018).

Anyone else considering taking this flight in 2020?

(Featured image photo credit: Anna Zvereva)

The post The Most Interesting Transatlantic Flight Returns In 2020 appeared first on One Mile at a Time