Nonstop flight route between St Athan, Wales, United Kingdom and Belém, Pará, Brazil:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between MoD St Athan (DGX), St Athan, Wales, United Kingdom and Belém/Val de Cans–Júlio Cezar Ribeiro International Airport (BEL), Belém, Pará, Brazil would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,495 miles (or 7,234 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 MoD St Athan and Belém/Val de Cans–Júlio Cezar Ribeiro 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 MoD St Athan and Belém/Val de Cans–Júlio Cezar Ribeiro 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 MoD St Athan (DGX):

• After the war, airmen of the Airframe and Engine trades continued to train at St Athan, but in 1955 this training dispersed to RAF Kirkham and RAF Weeton.
• The last aircraft to be serviced at St Athan, a Vickers VC10, departed the site on 23 February 2012.
• RAF St Athan was also home for the Royal Air Force Administrative Apprentice Training School.
• In March 2004, however, DARA announced the loss of 550 jobs at St Athan as part of streamlining to make DARA more efficient and better able to compete with the private sector for lucrative aircraft repair contracts, but also because they lost out to a direct RAF bid for a contract to upgrade the air force's fleet of ageing Harrier jump jet aircraft.
• Because of MoD St Athan's relatively low elevation of 163 feet, planes can take off or land at MoD St Athan 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.
• MoD St Athan (DGX) currently has only 1 runway.
• The training to be carried out at St Athan was to be specialist phase 2 and phase 3 engineering courses of the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force.
• St Athan also became the major RAF maintenance base for Vulcan, Victor, Buccaner, Phantom, Harrier, Tornado, Jaguar, Hawk and VC10 aircraft, originally under direct RAF control, but latterly under the auspices of the Defence Aviation Repair Agency.
• The furthest airport from MoD St Athan (DGX) is Dunedin International Airport (DUD), which is located 11,960 miles (19,248 kilometers) away in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
• The closest airport to MoD St Athan (DGX) is Cardiff Airport (CWL), which is located only 4 miles (6 kilometers) E of DGX.

Facts about Belém/Val de Cans–Júlio Cezar Ribeiro International Airport (BEL):

• In 1934 General Eurico Gaspar Dutra, then the Director of the Military Aviation, appointed Lieutenant Armando Sierra de Menezes to choose in Val de Cans a site where an airport was to be built.
• In 2012 the airport was ranked 10th in terms of cargo handled in Brazil, placing it amongst the busiest airports in the country.
• Belém/Val de Cans–Júlio Cezar Ribeiro International Airport handled 3,283,527 passengers last year.
• Belém/Val de Cans–Júlio Cezar Ribeiro International Airport (BEL) has 2 runways.
• The furthest airport from Belém/Val de Cans–Júlio Cezar Ribeiro International Airport (BEL) is Ayawasi Airport (AYW), which is nearly antipodal to Belém/Val de Cans–Júlio Cezar Ribeiro International Airport (meaning Belém/Val de Cans–Júlio Cezar Ribeiro International Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Ayawasi Airport), and is located 12,246 miles (19,708 kilometers) away in Ayawasi, Indonesia.
• The closest airport to Belém/Val de Cans–Júlio Cezar Ribeiro International Airport (BEL) is Macapá-Alberto Alcolumbre International Airport (MCP), which is located 205 miles (329 kilometers) WNW of BEL.
• Belém/Val de Cans–Júlio Cezar Ribeiro International Airport is the main airport serving Belém, Brazil.
• In addition to being known as "Belém/Val de Cans–Júlio Cezar Ribeiro International Airport", another name for BEL is "Aeroporto Internacional de Belém/Val de Cans–Júlio Cezar Ribeiro".
• Because of Belém/Val de Cans–Júlio Cezar Ribeiro International Airport's relatively low elevation of 56 feet, planes can take off or land at Belém/Val de Cans–Júlio Cezar Ribeiro 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.