Nonstop flight route between Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom and Osaka, Japan:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Cardiff Airport (CWL), Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom and Kansai International Airport (KIX), Osaka, Japan would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,996 miles (or 9,650 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 Cardiff Airport and Kansai International Airport, 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 Cardiff Airport and Kansai International Airport. 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 Cardiff Airport (CWL):

• In the 1970s, the supersonic airliner Concorde made a few flights into the airport on special occasions.
• The furthest airport from Cardiff Airport (CWL) is Dunedin International Airport (DUD), which is located 11,958 miles (19,244 kilometers) away in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
• The closest airport to Cardiff Airport (CWL) is MoD St Athan (DGX), which is located only 4 miles (6 kilometers) W of CWL.
• The history of the airport extends back to the early 1940s, when the Air Ministry requisitioned land in the rural Vale of Glamorgan to set up a wartime satellite aerodrome and training base, named RAF Rhoose, for Royal Air Force Spitfire pilots.
• Cardiff Airport (CWL) currently has only 1 runway.
• It was announced on 13 April 2011 that Bmibaby were to close their base at the airport, along with their base at Manchester Airport in the following October in order to redeploy aircraft at their other bases, including the creation of a new operation at Belfast City Airport.
• In April 1995, due to planned Local Government re-organisation in Wales, the Airport Company was privatised, with shares being sold to property and development firm, TBI plc, which has now been converted back to a private company called TBI Ltd and is concessionary to Orlando Sanford International Airport.
• Because of Cardiff Airport's relatively low elevation of 220 feet, planes can take off or land at Cardiff 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 addition to being known as "Cardiff Airport", another name for CWL is "Maes Awyr Caerdydd".
• In 2012, the airport ran into a barrage of sustained criticism from the First Minister of Wales, Carwyn Jones.
• Cardiff Airport handled 1,072,062 passengers last year.

Facts about Kansai International Airport (KIX):

• Because of Kansai International Airport's relatively low elevation of 17 feet, planes can take off or land at Kansai International 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.
• Initially, the airport was planned to be built near Kobe, but the city of Kobe refused the plan, so the airport was moved to a more southerly location on Osaka Bay.
• Terminal 2 is a low-cost carrier terminal designed to attract more LCCs by providing lower landing fees than terminal 1.
• The furthest airport from Kansai International Airport (KIX) is Rio Grande Regional Airport (RIG), which is located 11,980 miles (19,279 kilometers) away in Rio Grande, Brazil.
• In addition to being known as "Kansai International Airport", other names for KIX include "関西国際空港" and "Kansai Kokusai Kūkō".
• On 17 January 1995, Japan was struck by the Kobe earthquake, whose epicenter was about 20 km away from KIX and killed 6,434 people on Japan's main island of Honshū.
• Kansai International Airport (KIX) has 2 runways.
• The closest airport to Kansai International Airport (KIX) is Kobe Airport (UKB), which is located only 14 miles (22 kilometers) N of KIX.
• The second runway opened on 2 August 2007, but with the originally planned terminal portion postponed.
• In the 1960s, when the Kansai region was rapidly losing trade to Tokyo, planners proposed a new airport near Kobe and Osaka.