Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Gilgit, Pakistan:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Gilgit Airport (GIL), Gilgit, Pakistan would travel a Great Circle distance of 3,766 miles (or 6,060 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 RAF Fairford and Gilgit 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 RAF Fairford and Gilgit 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 RAF Fairford (FFD):

• The closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• RAF Fairford is also the home of the Royal International Air Tattoo, an annual air display.
• On 14 January 2004, the 420th Air Base Group was established at RAF Fairford to improve the control of its geographically separated units that had been aligned beneath the 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall.

Facts about Gilgit Airport (GIL):

• The closest airport to Gilgit Airport (GIL) is Chilas Airport (CHB), which is located 37 miles (59 kilometers) SSW of GIL.
• Gilgit Airport (GIL) currently has only 1 runway.
• The furthest airport from Gilgit Airport (GIL) is Mataveri International Airport (IPC), which is located 11,793 miles (18,979 kilometers) away in Easter Island, Chile.
• Because of Gilgit Airport's high elevation of 4,796 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at GIL. Combined with a high temperature, this could make GIL a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.