Nonstop flight route between Georgetown, Ascension Island, Saint Helena and London, England, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Ascension (ASI), Georgetown, Ascension Island, Saint Helena and Gatwick Airport (LGW), London, England, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,172 miles (or 6,714 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 RAF Ascension and Gatwick 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 RAF Ascension and Gatwick 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 RAF Ascension (ASI):

• In addition to being known as "RAF Ascension", another name for ASI is "Wideawake Airbase/Field".
• 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 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 closest airport to RAF Ascension (ASI) is Sasstown Airport (SAZ), which is located 965 miles (1,553 kilometers) NNE of ASI.
• RAF Ascension Island is also the refuelling point for the Ministry of Defence's South Atlantic Air Bridge flights to RAF Mount Pleasant, on the Falkland Islands, from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, in the UK.

Facts about Gatwick Airport (LGW):

• Gatwick Airport handled 35,444,206 passengers last year.
• On 1 May 1963, non-scheduled operators began implementing the Ministry of Aviation's instruction to transfer all regular charter flights from Heathrow to Gatwick, restricting the former's use for non-scheduled operations to "occasional" charter flights.
• The name "Gatwick" was first recorded as "Gatwik" in 1241 on the site of today's airport, on the northern edge of the North Terminal's aircraft taxiing area.
• The furthest airport from Gatwick Airport (LGW) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,901 miles (19,152 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• In November 1948, the airport's owners warned that it might revert to private use by November 1949.
• Gatwick Airport (LGW) has 2 runways.
• Pope John Paul II arrived at the airport on 28 May 1982 on an Alitalia Boeing 727-200 Advanced, beginning the first papal visit to the United Kingdom.
• On 9 April 1965, a BUA One-Eleven operated the type's first commercial service from Gatwick to Genoa.
• The closest airport to Gatwick Airport (LGW) is Redhill Aerodrome (KRH), which is located only 5 miles (8 kilometers) NNE of LGW.
• Because of Gatwick Airport's relatively low elevation of 203 feet, planes can take off or land at Gatwick 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.