Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Penang, Malaysia:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Penang International Airport (PEN), Penang, Malaysia would travel a Great Circle distance of 6,443 miles (or 10,368 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 Penang 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 Penang 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 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.
• 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 closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

Facts about Penang International Airport (PEN):

• Penang International Airport handled 5,487,751 passengers last year.
• The furthest airport from Penang International Airport (PEN) is Cap. FAP Guillermo Concha Iberico International Airport (PIU), which is nearly antipodal to Penang International Airport (meaning Penang International Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Cap. FAP Guillermo Concha Iberico International Airport), and is located 12,375 miles (19,916 kilometers) away in Piura, Peru.
• The closest airport to Penang International Airport (PEN) is RMAF Butterworth (BWH), which is located only 14 miles (23 kilometers) NE of PEN.
• Penang International Airport, previously known as Bayan Lepas International Airport, is situated in the Bayan Lepas area that at southeast of Penang Island, Malaysia.
• In 2013, over 5.48 million passengers used Penang International Airport.
• In addition to being known as "Penang International Airport", another name for PEN is "Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Pulau Pinang".
• Penang International Airport (PEN) currently has only 1 runway.
• There are 3 different buses routes that air passengers could board to reach to different parts of the island listed below.
• Because of Penang International Airport's relatively low elevation of 11 feet, planes can take off or land at Penang 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.