Nonstop flight route between Honiara, Guadalcanal Island, Solomon Islands and Sofia, Bulgaria:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Honiara International Airport (formerly Henderson Field) (HIR), Honiara, Guadalcanal Island, Solomon Islands and Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna (SOF), Sofia, Bulgaria would travel a Great Circle distance of 8,959 miles (or 14,418 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 Honiara International Airport (formerly Henderson Field) 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 Honiara International Airport (formerly Henderson Field) 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 Honiara International Airport (formerly Henderson Field) (HIR):

• The field was abandoned after the war, but reopened in 1969 as a modernized civilian airport.
• Because of Honiara International Airport (formerly Henderson Field)'s relatively low elevation of 28 feet, planes can take off or land at Honiara International Airport (formerly Henderson Field) 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 Honiara International Airport (formerly Henderson Field) (HIR) is Cap Skirring Airport (CSK), which is nearly antipodal to Honiara International Airport (formerly Henderson Field) (meaning Honiara International Airport (formerly Henderson Field) is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Cap Skirring Airport), and is located 12,138 miles (19,533 kilometers) away in Cap Skirring, Senegal.
• The closest airport to Honiara International Airport (formerly Henderson Field) (HIR) is Mbambanakira Airport (MBU), which is located 27 miles (43 kilometers) SSW of HIR.
• Honiara International Airport (formerly Henderson Field) (HIR) currently has only 1 runway.

Facts about Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna (SOF):

• 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.
• Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna (SOF) currently has only 1 runway.
• Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna handled 350,432 passengers last year.
• On 31 August 2006, Sofia Airport put its new runway system into operation, replacing the old and out-of-date facilities.
• According to the plan a new Sofia airport terminal was built to the east of the old terminal and a second runway was constructed alongside the existing one.
• The passenger terminal building is designed with a capacity of 2,000 peak hour passengers or up to 2.6 million passengers a year, plus 26,000 tonnes of luggage.
• In addition to being known as "Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna", other names for SOF include "Vrazhdebna Airport" and "Летище София".
• 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.
• Service life of the new airport control tower will be more than 40 years and is designed to serve the airport with a possible extension.
• 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.