The Wall Street Journal recently posted had an article along with a video segment about Anne Rendall, the Royal Bank of Scotland’s “flying banker” who’s a real jetsetter in the sense that she has racked up over 9,000 flights over the years, but that’s because she has been serving customers in the sparsely populated Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland for 25 years. She’s also a regular on the 1.7-mile and minute long flight between Westray and Papa Westray, the world’s shortest commercial flight:
If it were not for Ms. Rendall, residents on remoter Orkney Islands would have to spend a day going to and from the main town on a ferry, plus the island’s Internet service can’t handle a large amount of traffic. So its up to her to come and set up a hut or community center to collect checks, dole out cash and open new accounts. Her great-uncle had also sailed the floating bank that served the islands up until the 1960s before being replaced by a commercial air service.
RBS apparently declined to say whether the “flying bank” is profitable as its costs (including Ms. Rendall’s plane tickets and other travel expenses) are borne by the bank’s main branch in the Orkneys, but a spokesperson did say that her costs are offset by the leads she generates to offer customers products such as loans and the like.