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

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Bournemouth Airport (BOH), Bournemouth, England, United Kingdom and RAF Ascension (ASI), Georgetown, Ascension Island, Saint Helena would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,128 miles (or 6,644 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 Bournemouth Airport and RAF Ascension, 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 Bournemouth Airport and RAF Ascension. 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 Bournemouth Airport (BOH):

• Bournemouth Airport (BOH) currently has only 1 runway.
• June 2009 saw the announcement of a new Thomson Airways Boeing 737-800 to be based at the airport to add extra capacity to existing routes, plus the introduction of five new routes.
• Because of Bournemouth Airport's relatively low elevation of 38 feet, planes can take off or land at Bournemouth 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.
• In 2007, Ryanair began to rapidly increase the number of services from the airport, initially starting routes to Marseille, Alicante, and Milan which brought the total to eight.
• Vickers-Armstrongs took over some ex-BOAC hangars at Hurn in 1951 and started production of Varsities, then Viscounts and eventually, as the British Aircraft Corporation, the BAC One-Eleven.
• In 1969 the airport was purchased jointly by the Bournemouth Corporation and Dorset County Council and renamed as "Bournemouth Airport".
• The furthest airport from Bournemouth Airport (BOH) is Dunedin International Airport (DUD), which is located 11,941 miles (19,218 kilometers) away in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
• The closest airport to Bournemouth Airport (BOH) is Southampton Airport (SOU), which is located 24 miles (39 kilometers) ENE of BOH.
• With the budget increased to £45 million in July 2008, the upgrade will replace the arrivals terminal and upgrade the check-in and departure lounge areas.
• Bournemouth Airport handled 660,272 passengers last year.

Facts about RAF Ascension (ASI):

• In 1939 Ascension became important as a HF/DF radio station covering trade routes.
• In addition to being known as "RAF Ascension", another name for ASI is "Wideawake Airbase/Field".
• 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.
• Wideawake Airfield was a US installation built in 1943 by arrangement with the British government.
• The closest airport to RAF Ascension (ASI) is Sasstown Airport (SAZ), which is located 965 miles (1,553 kilometers) NNE of ASI.
• 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.
• 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.