Nonstop flight route between Pärnu, Estonia and Georgetown, Ascension Island, Saint Helena:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Pärnu Airport (EPU), Pärnu, Estonia and RAF Ascension (ASI), Georgetown, Ascension Island, Saint Helena would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,071 miles (or 8,162 kilometers).

A Great Circle is the shortest distance between 2 points on a sphere. Because most world maps are flat (but the Earth is round), the route of the shortest distance between 2 points on the Earth will often appear curved when viewed on a flat map, especially for long distances. If you were to simply draw a straight line on a flat map and measure a very long distance, it would likely be much further than if you were to lay a string between those two points on a globe. Because of the large distance between Pärnu Airport and RAF Ascension, the route shown on this map most likely appears curved because of this reason.

Try it at home! Get a globe and tightly lay a string between Pärnu Airport and RAF Ascension. You'll see that it will travel the same route of the red line on this map!

Departure Airport Information:

Arrival Airport Information:

Facts about Pärnu Airport (EPU):

• Aeroflot used to operate Tartu-Viljandi-Pärnu-Kingissepa services using Antonov An-2 biplanes.
• The furthest airport from Pärnu Airport (EPU) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,091 miles (17,848 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• The closest airport to Pärnu Airport (EPU) is Tallinn Airport (TLL), which is located 70 miles (112 kilometers) N of EPU.
• Pärnu Airport (EPU) currently has only 1 runway.
• In the summer of 1992, the re-constituted Estonian defence ministry took over the military airport, which had drawn down its operations.
• In addition to being known as "Pärnu Airport", another name for EPU is "Pärnu lennujaam".
• In the summer of 2010 Estonian Air operated one return flight a week from Stockholm.
• Because of Pärnu Airport's relatively low elevation of 46 feet, planes can take off or land at Pärnu Airport at a lower air speed than at airports located at a higher elevation. This is because the air density is higher closer to sea level than it would otherwise be at higher elevations.

Facts about RAF Ascension (ASI):

• The furthest airport from RAF Ascension (ASI) is Ujae Airport (UJE), which is nearly antipodal to RAF Ascension (meaning RAF Ascension is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Ujae Airport), and is located 12,370 miles (19,907 kilometers) away in Ujae Atoll, Marshall Islands.
• The NASA Tracking Station at Devil's Ashpit and the Cable & Wireless Earth Station at Donkey Plain were built in the "mid-sixties" for space operations and communications, including the latter's use for transmitting "microwave borne data via the Early Bird Satellite back to the NASA facility at Andover, Maine.
• The closest airport to RAF Ascension (ASI) is Sasstown Airport (SAZ), which is located 965 miles (1,553 kilometers) NNE of ASI.
• Ascension serves as a diversion airport for ETOPS aircraft crossing the Atlantic.
• In 1939 Ascension became important as a HF/DF radio station covering trade routes.
• In addition to being known as "RAF Ascension", another name for ASI is "Wideawake Airbase/Field".
• The RAF presence on Ascension is backed up by United States Air Force personnel, who contribute a similar number of service personnel to ensure the effective running of the station, under the command of Captain Eduard Rodriguez, who is responsible to the RAF Station Commander.