Nonstop flight route between Beckley, West Virginia, United States and Bilbao, Spain:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Raleigh County Memorial Airport (BKW), Beckley, West Virginia, United States and Bilbao Airport (BIO), Bilbao, Spain would travel a Great Circle distance of 3,971 miles (or 6,391 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 Raleigh County Memorial 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 Raleigh County Memorial 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 Raleigh County Memorial Airport (BKW):

• The furthest airport from Raleigh County Memorial Airport (BKW) is Margaret River Airport (MGV), which is located 11,491 miles (18,494 kilometers) away in Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia.
• Raleigh County Memorial Airport covers an area of 1,433 acres at an elevation of 2,504 feet above mean sea level.
• In 2005, the airport was the least busy airport with scheduled airline service in the United States, with 2,578 passengers using the facility that year.
• The closest airport to Raleigh County Memorial Airport (BKW) is Mercer County Airport (BLF), which is located 34 miles (55 kilometers) S of BKW.
• Raleigh County Memorial Airport (BKW) has 2 runways.
• As per Federal Aviation Administration records, the airport had 3,630 passenger boardings in calendar year 2008, 2,626 enplanements in 2009, and 2,429 in 2010.

Facts about Bilbao Airport (BIO):

• 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.
• The airport has seen a constant increase in its traffic numbers, the old terminal was already saturated and obsolete in 1990, although it had been renewed only a few years earlier.
• Bilbao Airport (BIO) has 2 runways.
• Bilbao Airport handled 3,800,789 passengers last year.
• Between 1964 and 1965, an instrumental ILS landing system and a meteorological radio for storm detection were installed.
• 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.
• In addition to being known as "Bilbao Airport", another name for BIO is "Bilboko aireportua (eu) Aeropuerto de Bilbao (es)".