Nonstop flight route between Alamosa, Colorado, United States and Santa Ana, California, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between San Luis Valley Regional Airport (ALS), Alamosa, Colorado, United States and MCAS El Toro (NZJ), Santa Ana, California, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 715 miles (or 1,151 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 relatively short distance between San Luis Valley Regional Airport and MCAS El Toro, the route shown on this map most likely still appears to be a straight line.

Departure Airport Information:

Arrival Airport Information:

Facts about San Luis Valley Regional Airport (ALS):

• In addition to being known as "San Luis Valley Regional Airport", another name for ALS is "Bergman Field".
• The closest airport to San Luis Valley Regional Airport (ALS) is Stevens Field (FAA: PSO) (PGO), which is located 66 miles (106 kilometers) W of ALS.
• Federal Aviation Administration records say the airport had 7,161 passenger boardings in calendar year 2008, 6,279 in 2009 and 6,737 in 2010.
• San Luis Valley Regional Airport (ALS) has 2 runways.
• The airport covers 1,700 acres at an elevation of 7,539 feet.
• The furthest airport from San Luis Valley Regional Airport (ALS) is Sir Gaëtan Duval Airport (RRG), which is located 11,054 miles (17,790 kilometers) away in Rodrigues Island, Mauritius.
• Because of San Luis Valley Regional Airport's high elevation of 7,539 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at ALS. Combined with a high temperature, this could make ALS a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.

Facts about MCAS El Toro (NZJ):

• The closing of MCAS El Toro ignited a political firestorm over the eventual fate of the facility.
• The land originally surrounding the base was mostly at agricultural use when it first opened, but it the late 1980s and early 1990s, residential development started to begin in the area.
• MCAS El Toro (NZJ) has 5 runways.
• The furthest airport from MCAS El Toro (NZJ) is Pierrefonds Airport (ZSE), which is located 11,486 miles (18,486 kilometers) away in Saint-Pierre, Réunion.
• The closest airport to MCAS El Toro (NZJ) is John Wayne Airport (SNA), which is located only 8 miles (13 kilometers) W of NZJ.
• Before it was decommissioned in 1999, it was the 4,682 acres home of Marine Corps aviation on the West Coast.
• The base headquarters was established on November 4, 1942 and the first landing occurred in late November when a Major Micheal Carmichael, flying from Camp Kearny, was forced to make an emergency landing among the construction equipment.
• Because of MCAS El Toro's relatively low elevation of 383 feet, planes can take off or land at MCAS El Toro 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.
• Those against the airport proposal were largely residents of the cities in the immediate vicinity of El Toro, such as Irvine, Lake Forest, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Dana Point, and Mission Viejo, where residents were alarmed at the idea of the aircraft noise.