Nonstop flight route between Luxembourg-Findel, Luxembourg and Geilenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Luxembourg Airport (LUX), Luxembourg-Findel, Luxembourg and NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen E–3A Component (GKE), Geilenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany would travel a Great Circle distance of 93 miles (or 149 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 relatively short distance between Luxembourg Airport and NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen E–3A Component, the route shown on this map most likely still appears to be a straight line.

Departure Airport Information:

Arrival Airport Information:

Facts about Luxembourg Airport (LUX):

• Luxembourg Findel Airport is the main airport in Luxembourg.
• Luxembourg Airport handled 2,197,331 passengers last year.
• In addition to being known as "Luxembourg Airport", other names for LUX include "Fluchhafe Lëtzebuerg", "Aéroport de Luxembourg" and "Flughafen Luxemburg".
• The closest airport to Luxembourg Airport (LUX) is Bitburg Airport (BBJ), which is located 27 miles (44 kilometers) NE of LUX.
• The furthest airport from Luxembourg Airport (LUX) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is nearly antipodal to Luxembourg Airport (meaning Luxembourg Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Chatham Islands), and is located 12,016 miles (19,338 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• Sandweiler Airport was used by the Americans for the rest of the war as a transport supply airfield and also to evacuate combat casualties to England.
• Luxembourg Airport (LUX) currently has only 1 runway.
• Sandweiler Airport remained unused by the Luftwaffe until September 1944, when a reconnaissance unit, Aufklärungsgruppe 123 was assigned to the airport which flew the Henschel Hs 126, a two-seat reconnaissance and observation aircraft.
• Terminal B opened in 2004, the building is unique as it only has gates and no check-in counters or arrivals hall.

Facts about NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen E–3A Component (GKE):

• In January 1980 the first E-3A Component personnel started arriving at the base, and in October 1980 the NATO Defence Planning Committee granted the E-3A Component the status of a NATO International Military Headquarters.
• NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen E–3A Component (GKE) currently has only 1 runway.
• Major construction on the base initially included a new 3,000-metre runway with a width of 45 metres, as well as aprons and taxiways, a control tower, an Information Technology Wing building, on-base accommodation and major renovation of the four existing hangars.
• Following NATO’s decision to establish the NATO Airborne Early Warning & Control Force program and to make the base near Teveren the Main Operating Base of the E­3A Component, a major construction program was started in 1980 to modify the operational and support facilities.
• The furthest airport from NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen E–3A Component (GKE) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,929 miles (19,198 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• The E-3A Component is NATO's first­ operational flying unit with multinational manning.
• The closest airport to NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen E–3A Component (GKE) is Merzbrück Airfield (AAH), which is located only 11 miles (18 kilometers) SSE of GKE.
• The Component’s multinational, fully integrated workforce consists of more than 3,000 military and civilian personnel from 16 NATO member nations.
• Because of NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen E–3A Component's relatively low elevation of 296 feet, planes can take off or land at NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen E–3A Component 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 Component operates seventeen Boeing E-3A AWACS aircraft all of which are based on the Boeing 707 airframe Trainer Cargo Aircraft but which have since been retired).
• An Economic Impact Study compiled by the NATO E-3A Component shows a 2008 economic impact of 275.8 million euro within a 200-kilometer radius of the base.