Nonstop flight route between Skardu, Pakistan and St Athan, Wales, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Skardu Airport (KDU), Skardu, Pakistan and MoD St Athan (DGX), St Athan, Wales, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 3,916 miles (or 6,302 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 Skardu Airport and MoD St Athan, 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 Skardu Airport and MoD St Athan. 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 Skardu Airport (KDU):

• In addition to being known as "Skardu Airport", another name for KDU is "سکردو ہوائی اڈے".
• Skardu Airport (KDU) has 2 runways.
• The closest airport to Skardu Airport (KDU) is Gilgit Airport (GIL), which is located 79 miles (127 kilometers) WNW of KDU.
• The furthest airport from Skardu Airport (KDU) is Mataveri International Airport (IPC), which is located 11,801 miles (18,992 kilometers) away in Easter Island, Chile.
• Because of Skardu Airport's high elevation of 7,316 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at KDU. Combined with a high temperature, this could make KDU a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.

Facts about MoD St Athan (DGX):

• MoD St Athan (DGX) currently has only 1 runway.
• In March 2004, however, DARA announced the loss of 550 jobs at St Athan as part of streamlining to make DARA more efficient and better able to compete with the private sector for lucrative aircraft repair contracts, but also because they lost out to a direct RAF bid for a contract to upgrade the air force's fleet of ageing Harrier jump jet aircraft.
• The furthest airport from MoD St Athan (DGX) is Dunedin International Airport (DUD), which is located 11,960 miles (19,248 kilometers) away in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
• During the war a dummy airfield was built using wood and cardboard a few miles west of the original airfield and successful efforts were made to hide the proper field.
• The MOD continued to negotiate the project with the Metrix Consortium, but the price rose several times, reaching £14 billion in mid-2009.
• The closest airport to MoD St Athan (DGX) is Cardiff Airport (CWL), which is located only 4 miles (6 kilometers) E of DGX.
• St Athan also became the major RAF maintenance base for Vulcan, Victor, Buccaner, Phantom, Harrier, Tornado, Jaguar, Hawk and VC10 aircraft, originally under direct RAF control, but latterly under the auspices of the Defence Aviation Repair Agency.
• Because of MoD St Athan's relatively low elevation of 163 feet, planes can take off or land at MoD St Athan 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.
• In March 2003 it was confirmed that a new hi-tech maintenance centre would be built, creating 3,300 jobs.