Nonstop flight route between St Athan, Wales, United Kingdom and Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between MoD St Athan (DGX), St Athan, Wales, United Kingdom and Düsseldorf Airport (DUS), Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany would travel a Great Circle distance of 440 miles (or 708 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 MoD St Athan and Düsseldorf Airport, the route shown on this map most likely still appears to be a straight line.

Departure Airport Information:

Arrival Airport Information:

Facts about MoD St Athan (DGX):

• MoD St Athan (DGX) currently has only 1 runway.
• The station officially opened as RAF St Athan on 1 September 1938 and the first unit to take up residence was No 4 School of Technical Training.
• The last aircraft to be serviced at St Athan, a Vickers VC10, departed the site on 23 February 2012.
• 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.
• The only squadrons to operate out of St Athan on a regular basis are the University of Wales Air Squadron, flying Grob Tutors and No 634 Volunteer Gliding Squadron using Vigilant T.1s.
• The closest airport to MoD St Athan (DGX) is Cardiff Airport (CWL), which is located only 4 miles (6 kilometers) E of DGX.
• 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 two cadet passengers were cousins and were named as Katie Jo Davies, 15, and Nikitta Walters, 14.
• The MOD continued to negotiate the project with the Metrix Consortium, but the price rose several times, reaching £14 billion in mid-2009.

Facts about Düsseldorf Airport (DUS):

• Terminal B was opened in 1973 and has 11 gates used mainly for domestic and EU-flights by Air Berlin and SkyTeam and Oneworld members.
• In 1964 planning began for the construction of a new terminal, with capacity for 1.4 million passengers, and in 1969 the main runway was lengthened to 3000 metres.
• Düsseldorf Airport (DUS) has 2 runways.
• The first aviation event in the area was the landing of Zeppelin LZ3 on 19 September 1909 about 3 kilometres south of the present airport.
• While repairs were ongoing, passengers were housed in big tents.
• The furthest airport from Düsseldorf Airport (DUS) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,899 miles (19,149 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• Düsseldorf Airport handled 20,830,000 passengers last year.
• In addition to being known as "Düsseldorf Airport", another name for DUS is "Flughafen Düsseldorf".
• The closest airport to Düsseldorf Airport (DUS) is Düsseldorf Mönchengladbach Airport (MGL), which is located only 12 miles (19 kilometers) WSW of DUS.
• At the end of the war the airport reopened for civil use in 1948.
• Because of Düsseldorf Airport's relatively low elevation of 147 feet, planes can take off or land at Düsseldorf 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.
• A fully automatic, suspended monorail called SkyTrain connects the long distance station to the parking areas and the passenger terminals and also serves as an inter-terminal connection.
• In 1973 the new central building and the Terminal B were opened and in 1975 the railroad connection between Düsseldorf central station and the airport started operation.
• Düsseldorf Airport is the largest and primary airport for the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region – the largest metropolitan region in Germany and among the largest metropolitan areas of the world.