Nonstop flight route between Alton, Illinois, United States and Sofia, Bulgaria:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between St. Louis Regional Airport (ALN), Alton, Illinois, United States and Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna (SOF), Sofia, Bulgaria would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,429 miles (or 8,737 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. Louis Regional Airport and Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna, 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. Louis Regional Airport and Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna. 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. Louis Regional Airport (ALN):

• West Star Aviation is the largest fixed base operations company at the airport.
• Civic Memorial Airport opened in 1946 and received its current name in 1984.
• Its operations are paid for by an airport taxation district created in 1946, which collects taxes from property owners in the Madison County townships of Alton, Wood River, Foster and Fort Russell.
• Today a fair amount of air traffic and the Direct TV blimp comes for Cardinals playoffs, as Lambert's airport cannot take the blimp.
• Because of St. Louis Regional Airport's relatively low elevation of 544 feet, planes can take off or land at St. Louis Regional 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. Louis Regional Airport (ALN) is Lambert–St. Louis International Airport (STL), which is located only 20 miles (32 kilometers) WSW of ALN.
• St. Louis Regional Airport (ALN) has 2 runways.
• The furthest airport from St. Louis Regional Airport (ALN) is Margaret River Airport (MGV), which is located 11,002 miles (17,706 kilometers) away in Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia.

Facts about Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna (SOF):

• In addition to being known as "Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna", other names for SOF include "Vrazhdebna Airport" and "Летище София".
• A lot of consideration has been given to the design of the layout, the functional definition of the working positions, the operations room surface area for ANS provision and meteorological observation, as well as to the requirements for visibility to the runway and the approaches and access to an open observation platform.
• Total cost of the project was planned at 200 million euros.
• Sofia Airport, sometimes also called Sofia-Vrazhdebna Airport, is the main airport of Bulgaria.
• Contract for detailed design and construction of a new control tower of the airport and forming an ATM Glavbolgarstroy.
• Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna (SOF) currently has only 1 runway.
• Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna handled 350,432 passengers last year.
• The furthest airport from Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna (SOF) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,437 miles (18,405 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• During the Second World War, the facilities were used by the military.
• The closest airport to Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna (SOF) is Plovdiv Airport (PDV), which is located 86 miles (138 kilometers) ESE of SOF.