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

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Meixian Airport (MXZ), Meizhou, Guangdong, China would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,985 miles (or 9,632 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 Meixian 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 Meixian 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 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 1950, as a result of the beginning of the Cold War, the airfield was transferred to the U.S.
• KC-135 and KC-10 tankers deployed to Fairford supported Operation El Dorado Canyon against Libya in 1986.
• Due to the deteriorating airfield facilities and its unique NATO heavy bomber mission, RAF Fairford underwent a $100 million upgrade of its runway and fuel systems in the largest NATO funded airfield construction project within a NATO country since the end of the Cold War.
• The closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.
• 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 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.
• On 12 May 2005, USAFE activated the 501st Combat Support Wing, with headquarters at RAF Alconbury, to provide support to its GSUs in the United Kingdom.
• Royal Air Force Fairford or more simply RAF Fairford is a Royal Air Force station in Gloucestershire, England which is currently a standby airfield and therefore not in everyday use.
• RAF Fairford is also the home of the Royal International Air Tattoo, an annual air display.

Facts about Meixian Airport (MXZ):

• The closest airport to Meixian Airport (MXZ) is Jieyang Chaoshan International Airport (SWA), which is located 60 miles (96 kilometers) SSE of MXZ.
• The furthest airport from Meixian Airport (MXZ) is Gobernador Horacio Guzmán Internacional Airport (JUJ), which is nearly antipodal to Meixian Airport (meaning Meixian Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Gobernador Horacio Guzmán Internacional Airport), and is located 12,360 miles (19,891 kilometers) away in San Salvador de Jujuy, Jujuy, Argentina.
• In addition to being known as "Meixian Airport", other names for MXZ include "梅县机场" and "Méixiàn Jīchǎng".
• Meixian Airport (MXZ) currently has only 1 runway.