Nonstop flight route between St Athan, Wales, United Kingdom and Mota Lava, Vanuatu:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between MoD St Athan (DGX), St Athan, Wales, United Kingdom and Mota Lava Airport (MTV), Mota Lava, Vanuatu would travel a Great Circle distance of 9,783 miles (or 15,744 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 Mota Lava 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 Mota Lava 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):

• 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 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.
• In 2006, the Special Forces Support Group was raised at St Athan and the Welsh Guards returned to London.
• RAF St Athan was also home for the Royal Air Force Administrative Apprentice Training School.
• 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 MOD continued to negotiate the project with the Metrix Consortium, but the price rose several times, reaching £14 billion in mid-2009.
• 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.
• MoD St Athan (DGX) currently has only 1 runway.

Facts about Mota Lava Airport (MTV):

• Because of Mota Lava Airport's relatively low elevation of 63 feet, planes can take off or land at Mota Lava 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 furthest airport from Mota Lava Airport (MTV) is Kédougou Airport (KGG), which is nearly antipodal to Mota Lava Airport (meaning Mota Lava Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Kédougou Airport), and is located 12,361 miles (19,893 kilometers) away in Kédougou, Senegal.
• In addition to being known as "Mota Lava Airport", another name for MTV is "Valua Airport".
• The closest airport to Mota Lava Airport (MTV) is Vanua Lava Airport (SLH), which is located only 17 miles (28 kilometers) SW of MTV.
• Out of the four airports in the Torba province, Valua Airport has the length and reliability advantage.