Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Paro, Bhutan:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Paro International Airport (PBH), Paro, Bhutan would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,805 miles (or 7,733 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 Paro 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 Paro 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):

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Fairford was chosen in 1969 as the British test centre for the Concorde aircraft, which continued until 1977.
• In 1950, as a result of the beginning of the Cold War, the airfield was transferred to the U.S.
• The closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.

Facts about Paro International Airport (PBH):

• The closest airport to Paro International Airport (PBH) is Cooch Behar Airport (COH), which is located 65 miles (104 kilometers) SSE of PBH.
• In 2012 it was reported that 181,659 passengers used the airport.
• The furthest airport from Paro International Airport (PBH) is Mataveri International Airport (IPC), which is located 11,281 miles (18,155 kilometers) away in Easter Island, Chile.
• The second international airport project, which was planned for construction at the Gelephu site, was downgraded to a domestic airport project in October 2008.
• Paro International Airport (PBH) currently has only 1 runway.
• Because of Paro International Airport's high elevation of 7,300 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at PBH. Combined with a high temperature, this could make PBH a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.