Nonstop flight route between Jining, Shandong, China and Fairford, England, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Jining Qufu Airport (JNG), Jining, Shandong, China and RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,362 miles (or 8,629 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 Jining Qufu 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 Jining Qufu 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 Jining Qufu Airport (JNG):

• Jining Qufu Airport (JNG) currently has only 1 runway.
• The furthest airport from Jining Qufu Airport (JNG) is General Pico Airport (GPO), which is nearly antipodal to Jining Qufu Airport (meaning Jining Qufu Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from General Pico Airport), and is located 12,408 miles (19,969 kilometers) away in General Pico, La Pampa, Argentina.
• In addition to being known as "Jining Qufu Airport", other names for JNG include "济宁曲阜机场", "Jìníng Qūfù Jīchǎng" and "ZSJG".
• The closest airport to Jining Qufu Airport (JNG) is Xuzhou Guanyin Airport (XUZ), which is located 109 miles (176 kilometers) SE of JNG.

Facts about RAF Fairford (FFD):

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Due to the deteriorating airfield facilities and its unique NATO heavy bomber mission, RAF Fairford underwent a $100 million upgrade of its runway and fuel systems in the largest NATO funded airfield construction project within a NATO country since the end of the Cold War.
• 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.
• 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.