Nonstop flight route between Corvo Island, Azores, Portugal and Fairford, England, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Corvo Airport (CVU), Corvo Island, Azores, Portugal and RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 1,625 miles (or 2,615 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 Corvo Airport and RAF Fairford, the route shown on this map most likely still appears to be a straight line.

Departure Airport Information:

Arrival Airport Information:

Facts about Corvo Airport (CVU):

• Because of Corvo Airport's relatively low elevation of 62 feet, planes can take off or land at Corvo 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 Corvo aerodrome is located on the island of Corvo, one of the two volcanically stable islands that lie west of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, in the archipelago of the Azores.
• In addition to being known as "Corvo Airport", another name for CVU is "Aeródromo de Corvo".
• Opened on 12 January 2005, SATA Gestão de Aeródromos was established to operate the smaller airports on the islands of Pico, Graciosa, Corvo and São Jorge.
• The furthest airport from Corvo Airport (CVU) is Flinders Island Airport (FLS), which is nearly antipodal to Corvo Airport (meaning Corvo Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Flinders Island Airport), and is located 12,381 miles (19,926 kilometers) away in Flinders Island, Tasmania, Australia.
• The closest airport to Corvo Airport (CVU) is Flores Airport (FLW), which is located only 15 miles (24 kilometers) S of CVU.
• Corvo Airport (CVU) currently has only 1 runway.
• In 2009, with the addition of new De Havilland Dash 8-Q200 to the SATA Air Açores fleet, to replace the existing Dornier Do 228, there was a comparable increase in passenger traffic to the island.
• Corvo Airport handled 3,839 passengers last year.

Facts about RAF Fairford (FFD):

• RAF Fairford is also the home of the Royal International Air Tattoo, an annual air display.
• On 15 September 2009, it was announced that the USAF will withdraw all their uniformed staff from the station by September 2010, after which it will be run on a "care and maintenance" basis.
• 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.
• 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.
• The runway was completed in 1953, and served as a forward airbase for the first Convair B-36 Peacemaker aircraft from Carswell Air Force Base, Texas.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.