Nonstop flight route between Chengdu, Sichuan, China and Fairford, England, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU), Chengdu, Sichuan, China and RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,200 miles (or 8,369 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 Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport and RAF Fairford, 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 Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport and RAF Fairford. 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 Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU):

• The construction of its second runway started from late 2008 and has started service in December 2009.
• The airport, formerly named Shuangguisi Airport, opened in capacity as an auxiliary military airfield in 1938 during the second Sino-Japanese War and World War II.
• The closest airport to Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU) is Mianyang Nanjiao Airport (MIG), which is located 75 miles (121 kilometers) NE of CTU.
• Flights to and from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan are international flights.
• In 2013 United Airlines announced it would start a thrice-weekly flight from San Francisco to Chengdu, operated with Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.
• When China Southwest Airlines existed, its headquarters were on the airport property.
• The furthest airport from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU) is La Florida Airport (LSC), which is nearly antipodal to Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (meaning Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from La Florida Airport), and is located 12,144 miles (19,543 kilometers) away in La Serena, Chile.
• In addition to being known as "Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport", other names for CTU include "成都双流国际机场" and "Chéngdū Shuāngliú Guójì Jīchǎng".
• The Transporting system
• Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU) has 2 runways.
• Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport handled 31,500,000 passengers last year.

Facts about RAF Fairford (FFD):

• In the early years of the Cold War the British and American governments reached an agreement under which elements of the USAF Strategic Air Command would be based in the UK.
• Fairford was chosen in 1969 as the British test centre for the Concorde aircraft, which continued until 1977.
• The closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.
• On 14 January 2004, the 420th Air Base Group was established at RAF Fairford to improve the control of its geographically separated units that had been aligned beneath the 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall.
• The furthest airport from RAF Fairford (FFD) is Dunedin International Airport (DUD), which is located 11,898 miles (19,148 kilometers) away in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
• Due to the deteriorating airfield facilities and its unique NATO heavy bomber mission, RAF Fairford underwent a $100 million upgrade of its runway and fuel systems in the largest NATO funded airfield construction project within a NATO country since the end of the Cold War.
• Operations staff and maintenance personnel were permanently assigned, but aircraft, aircrews and crew chiefs were temporarily assigned to the 11th Strategic Group for the European Tanker Task Force on rotation.