Nonstop flight route between Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland and Queenstown, New Zealand:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Kerry Airport (KIR), Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland and Queenstown Airport (ZQN), Queenstown, New Zealand would travel a Great Circle distance of 11,936 miles (or 19,209 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 Kerry Airport and Queenstown Airport, 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 Kerry Airport and Queenstown Airport. 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 Kerry Airport (KIR):

• Kerry Airport (KIR) currently has only 1 runway.
• The closest airport to Kerry Airport (KIR) is Bantry Aerodrome (BYT), which is located 35 miles (57 kilometers) S of KIR.
• The Runway 08/26 was licensed by the Irish Aviation Authority on 20 May 1994 and the first flight landed at 13:23 local time on the 20th May.
• Kerry Airport was incorporated as a public limited company in July 1968 with its main objective of building and managing an airport at Farranfore.
• Kerry Airport is located on the N23 approximately 60 miles from both Cork and Limerick.
• Encouraged by the apparent success of other regional airports in Ireland, the board of directors drew up a development plan to lengthen and widen the runway to 1,200m x 30m and to extend and upgrade the Terminal Buildings and to install an Instrument Landing System and appropriate lighting.
• In addition to being known as "Kerry Airport", another name for KIR is "Aerfort Chiarraí".
• The furthest airport from Kerry Airport (KIR) is Ryan's Creek Aerodrome (SZS), which is nearly antipodal to Kerry Airport (meaning Kerry Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Ryan's Creek Aerodrome), and is located 12,057 miles (19,403 kilometers) away in Stewart Island, New Zealand.
• Because of Kerry Airport's relatively low elevation of 112 feet, planes can take off or land at Kerry 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.
• Kerry Airport handled 272,799 passengers last year.
• The Government of Ireland subvents regional services under a public service obligation programme.
• In January 2011, it was announced that 20 of the airport's 65 staff would be made redundant due to a fall in passenger numbers following Ryanair's withdrawal from its PSO contract.
• The airport is a public limited company but not quoted on any stock exchange.

Facts about Queenstown Airport (ZQN):

• The closest airport to Queenstown Airport (ZQN) is Wanaka Airport (WKA), which is located 32 miles (52 kilometers) NE of ZQN.
• The furthest airport from Queenstown Airport (ZQN) is A Coruña Airport (LCG), which is nearly antipodal to Queenstown Airport (meaning Queenstown Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from A Coruña Airport), and is located 12,251 miles (19,716 kilometers) away in A Coruña, Spain.
• On 8 July 2010, Auckland International Airport Limited, the operator of Auckland Airport, announced it had entered into an agreement to take a 24.99% shareholding in Queenstown Airport Corporation Limited and form a strategic alliance between the two airports.
• Queenstown Airport (ZQN) has 2 runways.
• In another separate incident in June 2010 two airliners were found to have had a high potential to have breached the 1000 foot vertical separation required.