Weirdest new flight routes, from five-hour 'domestic' French flight to Reykjavik-Kansas City

A fragment of French territory deep in the Canadian Maritimes and Missouri's largest city join the route network

The first is a weekly link from Paris Charles de Gaulle to an island between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia in Canada. The destination is Saint-Pierre, a geopolitical anomaly deep in the Canadian Maritimes. Saint-Pierre, along with neighbouring Miquelon, was assigned to France in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. It is classed as a “territorial overseas collectivity”. Accordingly, the flight is a French domestic service.

Each Monday from 2 July to 20 August, Air Saint Pierre will fly from Paris CDG. The island is normally reached by ferry from southern Newfoundland, or by air from St John’s, Halifax or Montreal.

The five-and-a-half-hour flight is selling for €1,021 (£905) – though one-way flights are also available, which could be combined with WestJet budget flights from Halifax to Glasgow or St John’s to Gatwick.

Saint-Pierre and its partner, Miquelon, see very few tourists, though some Newfoundlanders go there to obtain cheap wine and French cheese.

The new air link, which is described as “experimental”, is aimed mainly at providing the chance for islanders to travel back to Paris. It has been championed by France’s minister for overseas, Annick Girardin, who comes from Saint-Pierre.

In the US, Kansas City gets its first ever transatlantic service from 25 May. Icelandair is expanding its North America network still further, and will be operating three flights a week from Reykjavik to the biggest city in Missouri.

Fares from Gatwick are available for around £580 in May, and prices from other UK airports are likely to be similar. Services run until late September.

Local media reports suggest that Kansas City has subsidised the route by $250,000 in its first year, representing around £1,600 for each flight to and from the airport.

Kansas City is the birthplace of the aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart and the musician Burt Bacharach, and was the home town of the newsreader Walter Cronkite.

Derek Klaus, director of communications for Visit KC, said: “We’re situated in the heart of the nation, and are best known for our tangy barbecues, world-famous jazz and beautiful fountains.”

Ralph Anker, editor of the routes newsletter The ANKER Report, said: “Kansas City becomes the fifth medium-sized US city to welcome non-stop flights to Europe this summer, having had none last summer. This follows Cleveland (Icelandair and Wow Air both starting flights from Iceland), Indianapolis (Delta Air Lines to Paris CDG), Nashville (British Airways from Heathrow) and St Louis (Wow Air).”

Icelandair also flies to several other “niche” cities in North America, including Anchorage in Alaska and Edmonton in Alberta.

Other secondary airports that have recently appeared on the route network are Hartford in Connecticut, Oakland in California and the Rhode Island capital, Providence.

For The Independent, Mr Anker analysed airport passenger rankings from 2015 to speculate on the next additions to the transatlantic route network. “Given that Kansas City is 39th, Cleveland is 46th and Hartford 54th in terms of passengers, how long before someone takes a punt on San Antonio (45th), Milwaukee (50th) or Jacksonville (55th)?”.