Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Mazari Sharif, Afghanistan:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Mazar-e Sharif International Airpوort (MZR), Mazari Sharif, Afghanistan would travel a Great Circle distance of 3,432 miles (or 5,524 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 Mazar-e Sharif International Airpوort, 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 Mazar-e Sharif International Airpوort. 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):

• RAF Fairford was constructed in 1944 to serve as an airfield for British and American troop carriers and gliders for the D-Day invasion of Normandy during World War II.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• The closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of 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.
• 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.
• Due to RAF Fairford's location and infrastructure, the airfield is designated as a forward operating location for the US Air Force.

Facts about Mazar-e Sharif International Airpوort (MZR):

• Originally built by engineers from the Soviet Union in the 1950s, the airport serves the Afghan population north of the country.
• Mazar-e Sharif International Airpوort (MZR) currently has only 1 runway.
• The closest airport to Mazar-e Sharif International Airpوort (MZR) is Termez Airport (TMJ), which is located 40 miles (65 kilometers) N of MZR.
• The furthest airport from Mazar-e Sharif International Airpوort (MZR) is Mataveri International Airport (IPC), which is located 11,749 miles (18,908 kilometers) away in Easter Island, Chile.
• The airport was heavily used in the 1980s by the Soviet forces from which it launched daily flight missions to hit targets in the Mujahideen controlled territories of the southeast.
• In addition to being known as "Mazar-e Sharif International Airpوort", another name for MZR is "Mazar-e-Sharif Airport (Mazar-e-Sharif)".