Nonstop flight route between Phuket, Thailand and Fairford, England, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Phuket International Airport (HKT), Phuket, Thailand and RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 6,206 miles (or 9,988 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 Phuket International Airport and RAF Fairford, 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 Phuket International Airport and RAF Fairford. 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 Phuket International Airport (HKT):

• The closest airport to Phuket International Airport (HKT) is Krabi International Airport (KBV), which is located 46 miles (74 kilometers) E of HKT.
• Phuket International Airport (HKT) currently has only 1 runway.
• Because of Phuket International Airport's relatively low elevation of 82 feet, planes can take off or land at Phuket 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.
• Phuket International Airport handled 11,342,491 passengers last year.
• In addition to being known as "Phuket International Airport", another name for HKT is "ท่าอากาศยานภูเก็ต".
• The airport is at an elevation of 82 feet above mean sea level.
• The furthest airport from Phuket International Airport (HKT) is Cap. FAP José A. Quiñones González International Airport (CIX), which is nearly antipodal to Phuket International Airport (meaning Phuket International Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Cap. FAP José A. Quiñones González International Airport), and is located 12,280 miles (19,763 kilometers) away in Chiclayo, Peru.

Facts about RAF Fairford (FFD):

• 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.
• 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.
• On 15 September 2009, it was announced that the USAF will withdraw all their uniformed staff from the station by September 2010, after which it will be run on a "care and maintenance" basis.
• 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.
• Fairford was chosen in 1969 as the British test centre for the Concorde aircraft, which continued until 1977.
• The closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.
• RAF Fairford was the only TransOceanic Abort Landing site for NASA's Space Shuttle in the UK.