Nonstop flight route between Buka Island, Papua New Guinea and Agana, Guam:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Buka Island Airport (BUA), Buka Island, Papua New Guinea and Andersen Air Force Base (UAM), Agana, Guam would travel a Great Circle distance of 1,473 miles (or 2,371 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 relatively short distance between Buka Island Airport and Andersen Air Force Base, the route shown on this map most likely still appears to be a straight line.

Departure Airport Information:

Arrival Airport Information:

Facts about Buka Island Airport (BUA):

• The furthest airport from Buka Island Airport (BUA) is São Filipe Airport (SFL), which is located 11,781 miles (18,959 kilometers) away in Fogo, Cape Verde.
• Buka Island Airport (BUA) currently has only 1 runway.
• The closest airport to Buka Island Airport (BUA) is Nissan Island Airport (IIS), which is located 71 miles (114 kilometers) NNW of BUA.
• Buka Airport is an airport serving Buka Island in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea.
• Today the airport is the primary air portal into Bougainville, and even 60 years after the war, wreckage from the military use of the airfield by the Japanese and Americans is easily found in the area.
• Because of Buka Island Airport's relatively low elevation of 11 feet, planes can take off or land at Buka Island 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 origins of the airfield begin in 1941 when Australian troops built gun pits around a primitive airstrip in December 1941.

Facts about Andersen Air Force Base (UAM):

• With hostilities in Korea at a standstill, the 19th Bomb Wing headquarters relocated to Kadena Air Base, Japan in 1953, and was replaced by the 6319th Air Base Wing of the Far East Air Forces.
• Operation Linebacker II continued the mission of Operation Arc Light, and was most notable for its 11-day bombing campaign between 18 and 29 December 1972, in which more than 150 B-52 bombers flew 729 sorties in 11 days.
• Andersen Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located approximately 4 miles northeast of Yigo near Agafo Gumas in the United States territory of Guam.
• The furthest airport from Andersen Air Force Base (UAM) is Salvador-Deputado Luís Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (2 de Julho) (SSA), which is nearly antipodal to Andersen Air Force Base (meaning Andersen Air Force Base is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Salvador-Deputado Luís Eduardo Magalhães International Airport (2 de Julho)), and is located 12,214 miles (19,656 kilometers) away in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.
• The closest airport to Andersen Air Force Base (UAM) is Guam International Airport (GUM), which is located only 11 miles (17 kilometers) SW of UAM.
• Andersen Air Force Base's origins begin on 7 December 1941 when Guam was attacked by the armed forces of Imperial Japan in the Battle of Guam three hours after the Attack on Pearl Harbor.
• In October 1949, the 19th Wing again became subordinated to the 20th Air Force and the remaining units in the Marianas and Bonin Islands were transferred to other organizations.