Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Hangzhou, China:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport (HGH), Hangzhou, China would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,785 miles (or 9,309 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 Hangzhou Xiaoshan 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 RAF Fairford and Hangzhou Xiaoshan 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 RAF Fairford (FFD):

• In 1950, as a result of the beginning of the Cold War, the airfield was transferred to the U.S.
• On 15 September 2009, it was announced that the USAF will withdraw all their uniformed staff from the station by September 2010, after which it will be run on a "care and maintenance" basis.
• 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.
• 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.
• The runway was completed in 1953, and served as a forward airbase for the first Convair B-36 Peacemaker aircraft from Carswell Air Force Base, Texas.
• The closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.
• RAF Fairford was the only TransOceanic Abort Landing site for NASA's Space Shuttle in the UK.

Facts about Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport (HGH):

• Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport (HGH) has 2 runways.
• There are airport bus services linking the airport to points throughout Zhejiang and cities in Jiangsu.
• The new runway is 3,400 metres long and 60 metres wide, which is capable of handling the Airbus A380.
• Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport handled 22,114,103 passengers last year.
• The closest airport to Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport (HGH) is Yiwu Airport (YIW), which is located 66 miles (106 kilometers) SSW of HGH.
• Because of Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport's relatively low elevation of 23 feet, planes can take off or land at Hangzhou Xiaoshan 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.
• The furthest airport from Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport (HGH) is Reconquista Airport (RCQ), which is nearly antipodal to Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport (meaning Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Reconquista Airport), and is located 12,366 miles (19,901 kilometers) away in Reconquista, Santa Fe, Argentina.
• In addition to being known as "Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport", other names for HGH include "杭州萧山国际机场" and "Hángzhōu Xiāoshān Guójì Jīchǎng".
• The airport was a hub of CNAC Zhejiang.