Nonstop flight route between Altenrhein, Switzerland and Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between St. Gallen–Altenrhein Airport (ACH), Altenrhein, Switzerland and Gerald R. Ford International Airport (GRR), Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,336 miles (or 6,979 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. Gallen–Altenrhein Airport and Gerald R. Ford International 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. Gallen–Altenrhein Airport and Gerald R. Ford International 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. Gallen–Altenrhein Airport (ACH):

• The nearest bigger airport is Friedrichshafen Airport in Germany, on the opposite side of Lake Constance to the northwest by ferry).
• The closest airport to St. Gallen–Altenrhein Airport (ACH) is Hohenems-Dornbirn Airport (HOH), which is located only 10 miles (15 kilometers) SE of ACH.
• The furthest airport from St. Gallen–Altenrhein Airport (ACH) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is nearly antipodal to St. Gallen–Altenrhein Airport (meaning St. Gallen–Altenrhein Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Chatham Islands), and is located 12,051 miles (19,394 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• In addition to being known as "St. Gallen–Altenrhein Airport", another name for ACH is "People's Business Airport".
• St. Gallen–Altenrhein Airport (ACH) has 2 runways.

Facts about Gerald R. Ford International Airport (GRR):

• Because of Gerald R. Ford International Airport's relatively low elevation of 794 feet, planes can take off or land at Gerald R. Ford International 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 airport is at the intersection of 44th Street and Patterson Avenue.
• The furthest airport from Gerald R. Ford International Airport (GRR) is Margaret River Airport (MGV), which is located 11,165 miles (17,969 kilometers) away in Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia.
• In January 2012 Southwest Airlines announced it would continue Airtran flights to Grand Rapids and eventually transfer them to Southwest.
• The first scheduled air service in the United States was between Grand Rapids and Detroit on a Ford-Stout monoplane named Miss Grand Rapids, which started July 26, 1926.
• The closest airport to Gerald R. Ford International Airport (GRR) is Park Township Airport (HLM), which is located 33 miles (53 kilometers) W of GRR.
• Gerald R. Ford International Airport (GRR) has 3 runways.
• When new baggage screening regulations were introduced by the Transportation Security Administration in 2002, the airport was one of the first in the nation to conduct trials on the new screening machines.