Nonstop flight route between Berlin, Germany and Hargeisa, Somalia:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Royal Air Force Station Gatow (GWW), Berlin, Germany and Hargeisa Egal International Airport (HGA), Hargeisa, Somalia would travel a Great Circle distance of 3,436 miles (or 5,530 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 Royal Air Force Station Gatow and Hargeisa Egal 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 Royal Air Force Station Gatow and Hargeisa Egal 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 Royal Air Force Station Gatow (GWW):

• To commemorate Australian participation in the Airlift, the Royal Australian Air Force presented RAF Gatow with a retired Douglas Dakota in the 1980s, to use as a gate guardian.
• RAF Gatow has the unique and unlikely distinction of being the base for the only known operational use of flying boats in central Europe, during the Berlin Blockade, on the nearby Großer Wannsee in the Havel river.
• The closest airport to Royal Air Force Station Gatow (GWW) is Berlin Tegel Airport (TXL), which is located only 9 miles (14 kilometers) NE of GWW.
• The airfield is now called General-Steinhoff Kaserne.
• Royal Air Force Station Gatow (GWW) currently has only 1 runway.
• Clues to the airfield's original use survive in the barrack block accommodation, each block of which was named after a famous German airman of the First World War, with the airman's bust above the entrance door.
• The furthest airport from Royal Air Force Station Gatow (GWW) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,694 miles (18,819 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• Because of Royal Air Force Station Gatow's relatively low elevation of 161 feet, planes can take off or land at Royal Air Force Station Gatow 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 RAF Gatow Station Flight used two De Havilland Chipmunk T10s, one of which is now in the Alliiertenmuseum, to maintain and exercise the British legal right under the Potsdam Agreement to use the airspace over both West and East Berlin, as well as the air corridors to and from West Germany to the city.
• Known for most of its operational life as Royal Air Force Station Gatow, or more commonly RAF Gatow, this former British Royal Air Force airfield is in the district of Gatow in south-western Berlin, west of the Havel river, in the borough of Spandau.
• RAF Gatow was from 1970 also used by the UKs Army Air Corps, 7 Aviation Flight AAC, later renamed 7 Flight AAC being based at the station initially flying four Westland Sioux and later three Aérospatiale Gazelle AH 1 helicopters.

Facts about Hargeisa Egal International Airport (HGA):

• The furthest airport from Hargeisa Egal International Airport (HGA) is Atuona Airport (AUQ), which is nearly antipodal to Hargeisa Egal International Airport (meaning Hargeisa Egal International Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Atuona Airport), and is located 12,225 miles (19,674 kilometers) away in Atuona, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia.
• In 2012, the airport's routes were temporarily suspended as its runway underwent major renovations, funded by the Somaliland authorities, Kuwait Fund and USAID.
• The closest airport to Hargeisa Egal International Airport (HGA) is Borama Airport (BXX), which is located 70 miles (113 kilometers) WNW of HGA.
• Hargeisa Egal International Airport (HGA) currently has only 1 runway.
• During the events leading up to the Somali Civil War in the early 1990s, the airport's infrastructure was significantly damaged.
• Originally a small facility built during the colonial period, the former Hargeisa International Airport was expanded and modernized in the 1980s by the Siad Barre administration so as to accommodate larger aircraft and offer more flight destinations.
• Because of Hargeisa Egal International Airport's high elevation of 4,423 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at HGA. Combined with a high temperature, this could make HGA a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.