Nonstop flight route between Gary, Indiana (near Chicago), United States and Sofia, Bulgaria:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Gary/Chicago International Airport (GYY), Gary, Indiana (near Chicago), United States and Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna (SOF), Sofia, Bulgaria would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,197 miles (or 8,365 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 Gary/Chicago International Airport and Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna, 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 Gary/Chicago International Airport and Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna. 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 Gary/Chicago International Airport (GYY):

• The closest airport to Gary/Chicago International Airport (GYY) is Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW), which is located 21 miles (34 kilometers) NW of GYY.
• Federal Aviation Administration records say the airport had 4,353 passenger boardings in calendar year 2008, 1,633 in 2009 and 2,143 in 2010.
• Because of Gary/Chicago International Airport's relatively low elevation of 591 feet, planes can take off or land at Gary/Chicago 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.
• The furthest airport from Gary/Chicago International Airport (GYY) is Margaret River Airport (MGV), which is located 11,103 miles (17,868 kilometers) away in Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia.
• Gary/Chicago was a hub for seasonal carrier SkyValue Airlines from December 2006 to April 2007.
• On the afternoon of March 22, 2013, the FAA closed the airport's control tower, along with other airports in Illinois.
• Gary/Chicago is the official "third airport" for the Chicago metropolitan area, supplementing Chicago's major airports, O'Hare and Midway.
• Skybus Airlines served the airport until the airline folded on April 4, 2008.
• Gary/Chicago International Airport (GYY) has 2 runways.

Facts about Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna (SOF):

• Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna (SOF) currently has only 1 runway.
• The construction of the new Sofia tower is related to the reconstruction and development of Sofia Airport and is the natural extension of the development of the airport complex.
• In 2004 Strabag demanded an additional 6 million euro due to rising steel prices.
• On 19 August 2011 in the presence of Ivaylo Moskovski, minister of transport, information technology and communications, the BULATSA director general Diyan Dinev, Glavbolgarstroy AD chief executive director Pavel Kalistratov and Glavbolgarstroy AD executive director and management board member Nina Stoyanova signed the design execution and construction contract between BULATSA and Glavbolgarstroy AD for the new control tower at Sofia Airport.
• The closest airport to Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna (SOF) is Plovdiv Airport (PDV), which is located 86 miles (138 kilometers) ESE of SOF.
• In mid-2012 the airport will have one of the most modern and most beautiful airport towers in Europe.
• The furthest airport from Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna (SOF) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,437 miles (18,405 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• The terminal had substantially reached its capacity of some 600,000 passengers a year by the later 1960s and was subjected to a number of refurbishments and extensions beginning in the spring of 1968.
• Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna handled 350,432 passengers last year.
• A lot of consideration has been given to the design of the layout, the functional definition of the working positions, the operations room surface area for ANS provision and meteorological observation, as well as to the requirements for visibility to the runway and the approaches and access to an open observation platform.
• In addition to being known as "Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna", other names for SOF include "Vrazhdebna Airport" and "Летище София".