Nonstop flight route between Butare, Rwanda and Pituffik, Greenland:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Butare Airport (BTQ), Butare, Rwanda and Thule Air Base (THU), Pituffik, Greenland would travel a Great Circle distance of 6,528 miles (or 10,506 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 Butare Airport and Thule Air Base, 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 Butare Airport and Thule Air Base. 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 Butare Airport (BTQ):

• In addition to being known as "Butare Airport", another name for BTQ is "Butare".
• Butare Airport (BTQ) currently has only 1 runway.
• The closest airport to Butare Airport (BTQ) is Kirundo Airport (KRE), which is located 25 miles (40 kilometers) E of BTQ.
• The furthest airport from Butare Airport (BTQ) is Cassidy International Airport (CXI), which is located 11,946 miles (19,224 kilometers) away in Christmas Island, Kiribati.
• Because of Butare Airport's high elevation of 5,801 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at BTQ. Combined with a high temperature, this could make BTQ a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.
• Butare Airport is a small civilian airport that serves the town of Butare.

Facts about Thule Air Base (THU):

• In 1957 construction began on 4 Nike Missile sites around the base, and they and their radar systems were operational by the end of 1958.
• The furthest airport from Thule Air Base (THU) is Hobart International Airport (HBA), which is located 9,883 miles (15,905 kilometers) away in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
• A cluster of huts known as Pituffik stood on the wide plain where the base was built in 1951.
• Thule is the location where the fastest recorded sea level surface wind speed in the world was measured when a peak speed of 333 kilometres per hour was recorded on 8 March 1972 prior to the instrument's destruction.
• In addition to being known as "Thule Air Base", another name for THU is "Thule AB".
• A board of Air Force officers headed by Gordon P.
• Knud Rasmussen was the first to recognize the Pituffik plain as ideal for an airport.
• Late 1950s the DEW 1 to 4 where build as "weather stations", Thule Air Base would act as an supply station for the DYE bases.
• In 1959, the airbase was the main staging point for the construction of Camp Century, some 150 mi from the base.
• The closest airport to Thule Air Base (THU) is Savissivik Heliport (SVR), which is located 69 miles (111 kilometers) ESE of THU.