Nonstop flight route between Meridian, Mississippi, United States and Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Key Field Air National Guard Base (MEI), Meridian, Mississippi, United States and Cardiff Airport (CWL), Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,325 miles (or 6,961 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 Key Field Air National Guard Base and Cardiff 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 Key Field Air National Guard Base and Cardiff 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 Key Field Air National Guard Base (MEI):

• Air Rescue and Firefighting capabilities at the airfield are provided by the Air National Guard.
• The closest airport to Key Field Air National Guard Base (MEI) is Hesler-Noble Field (LUL), which is located 52 miles (83 kilometers) SSW of MEI.
• Key Field Air National Guard Base is the home base of the Mississippi Air National Guard 186th Air Refueling Wing.
• The furthest airport from Key Field Air National Guard Base (MEI) is Margaret River Airport (MGV), which is located 11,055 miles (17,792 kilometers) away in Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia.
• In addition to being known as "Key Field Air National Guard Base", another name for MEI is "Key Field ANGB".

Facts about Cardiff Airport (CWL):

• Because of Cardiff Airport's relatively low elevation of 220 feet, planes can take off or land at Cardiff 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.
• The closest airport to Cardiff Airport (CWL) is MoD St Athan (DGX), which is located only 4 miles (6 kilometers) W of CWL.
• Cardiff Airport (CWL) currently has only 1 runway.
• The nationalisation of Cardiff Airport was criticised by the owners of Bristol Airport, who claimed that the £52 million paid for the airport was well over market value, and are worried about what they claim is the possibility of state subsidy to Cardiff Airport.
• On 16 May 2012, it was announced that airport Managing Director, Patrick Duffy, had left his position amid mounting pressure from the Welsh Government on the airport owners Abertis to improve the state of the airport and improve the services it offers, or sell the facility to an investor in a proposed public-private partnership.
• The airport was used by 2.1 million passengers in 2008, falling to around 1.1 million passengers in 2013, according to the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority, a reduction of nearly 50% since 2008, making it the 21st busiest airport in the UK in terms of passenger numbers.
• The furthest airport from Cardiff Airport (CWL) is Dunedin International Airport (DUD), which is located 11,958 miles (19,244 kilometers) away in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
• In the 1970s, the supersonic airliner Concorde made a few flights into the airport on special occasions.
• Cardiff Airport was owned by a private company Cardiff International Airport Limited which, in turn was wholly owned by TBI Ltd a former public company which is 90% owned by the Spanish conglomerate Abertis and 10% by Aena International - the world's largest airport operator.
• Cardiff Airport handled 1,072,062 passengers last year.
• In addition to being known as "Cardiff Airport", another name for CWL is "Maes Awyr Caerdydd".