Nonstop flight route between St. Mary's, Alaska, United States and Vadsø, Finnmark, Norway:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between St. Mary's Airport (KSM), St. Mary's, Alaska, United States and Vadsø Airport (VDS), Vadsø, Finnmark, Norway would travel a Great Circle distance of 3,285 miles (or 5,287 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 St. Mary's Airport and Vadsø Airport, 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 St. Mary's Airport and Vadsø Airport. 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 St. Mary's Airport (KSM):

• The furthest airport from St. Mary's Airport (KSM) is Cape Town International Airport (CPT), which is located 10,494 miles (16,889 kilometers) away in Cape Town, South Africa.
• Because of St. Mary's Airport's relatively low elevation of 312 feet, planes can take off or land at St. Mary's 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.
• The closest airport to St. Mary's Airport (KSM) is Mountain Village Airport (MOU), which is located only 13 miles (20 kilometers) W of KSM.
• St. Mary's Airport (KSM) has 2 runways.

Facts about Vadsø Airport (VDS):

• Varangfly proposed Vadsø as a possible site of a small airfield in 1964, suitable for landing air taxis and air ambulances.
• Because of Vadsø Airport's relatively low elevation of 127 feet, planes can take off or land at Vadsø 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.
• The closest airport to Vadsø Airport (VDS) is Kirkenes Airport, Høybuktmoen (KKN), which is located 24 miles (38 kilometers) S of VDS.
• Vadsø Airport handled 81,772 passengers last year.
• Widerøe operated Twin Otters on the route until 1995, when the Dash 8 was introduced.
• The furthest airport from Vadsø Airport (VDS) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 10,407 miles (16,748 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• Both Widerøe and Norving applied to operate the Finnmark route, which would connect the airports together and to the primary airports in Finnmark and Tromsø Airport.
• In addition to being known as "Vadsø Airport", another name for VDS is "Vadsø lufthavn".