Nonstop flight route between Artesia, New Mexico, United States and Bilbao, Spain:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Artesia Municipal Airport (ATS), Artesia, New Mexico, United States and Bilbao Airport (BIO), Bilbao, Spain would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,220 miles (or 8,401 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 Artesia Municipal Airport and Bilbao 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 Artesia Municipal Airport and Bilbao 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 Artesia Municipal Airport (ATS):

• Artesia Municipal Airport is a city owned, public use airport located three nautical miles west of the central business district of Artesia, a city in Eddy County, New Mexico, United States.
• Artesia Municipal Airport (ATS) has 2 runways.
• During 1943 and 1944 was used by the United States Army Air Forces as a contract glider training airfield.
• The closest airport to Artesia Municipal Airport (ATS) is Roswell International Air Center (ROW), which is located 31 miles (50 kilometers) N of ATS.
• The furthest airport from Artesia Municipal Airport (ATS) is Sir Gaëtan Duval Airport (RRG), which is located 11,261 miles (18,123 kilometers) away in Rodrigues Island, Mauritius.
• For the 12-month period ending April 6, 2011, the airport had 11,550 general aviation aircraft operations, an average of 31 per day.

Facts about Bilbao Airport (BIO):

• Bilbao Airport handled 3,800,789 passengers last year.
• Bilbao Airport (BIO) has 2 runways.
• In addition to being known as "Bilbao Airport", another name for BIO is "Bilboko aireportua (eu) Aeropuerto de Bilbao (es)".
• Because of Bilbao Airport's relatively low elevation of 137 feet, planes can take off or land at Bilbao 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.
• Between 1964 and 1965, an instrumental ILS landing system and a meteorological radio for storm detection were installed.
• With the past increase of traffic, the terminal would have become saturated again in a year because it is designed to handle about 4.5 million passengers per year, in 2007 it went nearly to its maximum capacity.
• The closest airport to Bilbao Airport (BIO) is Vitoria-Gasteiz Airport (VIT), which is located 30 miles (49 kilometers) SSE of BIO.
• The furthest airport from Bilbao Airport (BIO) is Hood Aerodrome (MRO), which is nearly antipodal to Bilbao Airport (meaning Bilbao Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Hood Aerodrome), and is located 12,260 miles (19,730 kilometers) away in Masterton, New Zealand.
• There has been some criticism of Santiago Calatrava's design by Aena, the Spanish airport authority, because it seems difficult to make further enlargements in the terminal's capacity because the design is too closed.