Nonstop flight route between Mexico City, Mexico and Wallops Island, Virginia, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Benito Juarez International Airport (MEX), Mexico City, Mexico and Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL), Wallops Island, Virginia, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 1,908 miles (or 3,071 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 Benito Juarez International Airport and Wallops Flight Facility Airport, the route shown on this map most likely still appears to be a straight line.

Departure Airport Information:

Arrival Airport Information:

Facts about Benito Juarez International Airport (MEX):

• In the 1970s, president Luis Echeverría closed three runways and gave that land to poor people in order to build their homes, leaving just two parallel runways.
• A new Master Plan will be presented by President Enrique Peña Nieto in late 2014.
• On November 24, 1978, the "Mexico" Control Tower began its operations.
• In addition to being known as "Benito Juarez International Airport", another name for MEX is "Aeropuerto Internacional Benito Juárez".
• The furthest airport from Benito Juarez International Airport (MEX) is Sir Gaëtan Duval Airport (RRG), which is located 11,294 miles (18,175 kilometers) away in Rodrigues Island, Mauritius.
• Benito Juarez International Airport (MEX) has 2 runways.
• Benito Juarez International Airport handled 3,277,957 passengers last year.
• Because of the increasing traffic, president Vicente Fox announced the construction of a new, larger airport on 5,000 ha in the municipalities of Texcoco and San Salvador Atenco, but when local violent protests aroused, the new airport was cancelled.
• The Customs area grew from 3,350 to 6,200m² and the number of inspection modules grew from 10 to 18.
• The closest airport to Benito Juarez International Airport (MEX) is Santa Lucía Air Force Base (NLU), which is located 22 miles (36 kilometers) N of MEX.
• Because of Benito Juarez International Airport's high elevation of 7,316 feet, planes must typically fly at a faster airspeed in order to takeoff or land at MEX. Combined with a high temperature, this could make MEX a "Hot & High" airport, where the air density is lower than it would otherwise be at sea level.

Facts about Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL):

• In 1998, the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority, later joined by Maryland, built the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops on land leased from NASA.
• There have been over 16,000 launches from the rocket testing range at Wallops since its founding in 1945 in the quest for information on the flight characteristics of airplanes, launch vehicles, and spacecraft, and to increase the knowledge of the Earth's upper atmosphere and the environment of outer space.
• The closest airport to Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL) is Accomack County Airport (MFV), which is located 26 miles (42 kilometers) SW of WAL.
• In 1945, NASA's predecessor agency, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, established a rocket launch site on Wallops Island under the direction of the Langley Research Center.
• The WFF Research Airport is located on the Main Base.
• The first payload launched into orbit from Wallops Island was Explorer IX, atop a Scout rocket, on February 15, 1961.
• The furthest airport from Wallops Flight Facility Airport (WAL) is Margaret River Airport (MGV), which is located 11,785 miles (18,965 kilometers) away in Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia.
• Because of Wallops Flight Facility Airport's relatively low elevation of 0 feet, planes can take off or land at Wallops Flight Facility 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.