Nonstop flight route between Falkland Islands and Mataram (near Praya), Lombok, Indonesia:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Mount Pleasant (MPN), Falkland Islands and Lombok International Airport (LOP), Mataram (near Praya), Lombok, Indonesia would travel a Great Circle distance of 8,239 miles (or 13,260 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 RAF Mount Pleasant and Lombok International 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 RAF Mount Pleasant and Lombok International 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 RAF Mount Pleasant (MPN):

• Using the IATA airport code MPN, RAF Mount Pleasant also acts as the Falkland Islands' only international airport, along with its military role.
• Additionally, every Saturday LAN Airlines operates a scheduled commercial flight to Presidente Carlos Ibáñez del Campo International Airport of the Punta Arenas city in southern Chile, stopping at Río Gallegos, Argentina once a month.
• The closest airport to RAF Mount Pleasant (MPN) is Port Stanley Airport (PSY), which is located 30 miles (49 kilometers) ENE of MPN.
• On 10 November 2011, it was announced that Prince William would be serving as a Sea King pilot on the station for six weeks during February and March 2012.
• After the surrender of the Argentine ground forces on the islands, the British still faced the problem of potential Argentine air attacks from Argentina, so an aircraft carrier had to remain on station to guard the islands with its squadron of Sea Harriers until the local airfield was prepared for jet aircraft.
• 33 Engineer Regiment provides constant support and is part of the Joint Service Falkland Islands Detachment which consists of RAF and RLC EOD teams.
• The furthest airport from RAF Mount Pleasant (MPN) is Mohe Gulian Airport (OHE), which is nearly antipodal to RAF Mount Pleasant (meaning RAF Mount Pleasant is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Mohe Gulian Airport), and is located 12,353 miles (19,879 kilometers) away in Mohe, Heilongjiang, China.
• There is also a Joint Communications Unit providing the electronic warfare and command and control systems for the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force.

Facts about Lombok International Airport (LOP):

• In addition to being known as "Lombok International Airport", another name for LOP is "Bandar Udara Internasional Lombok".
• The airport is not served by rail connections and there are none available on the island.
• Lombok International Airport is a new airport on the island of Lombok in Indonesia.
• The closest airport to Lombok International Airport (LOP) is Selaparang Airport (AMI), which is located only 18 miles (30 kilometers) NW of LOP.
• Lombok International Airport handled 167,692 passengers last year.
• The secretary of commission III NTB Council, Suharto reported in 2010 that the delays to completion of the Lombok International Airport were due to a lack of funding to the order of Rp 76 Billion.
• The furthest airport from Lombok International Airport (LOP) is San Tomé Airport (SOM), which is nearly antipodal to Lombok International Airport (meaning Lombok International Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from San Tomé Airport), and is located 12,405 miles (19,964 kilometers) away in San Tomé, Venezuela.
• Because of Lombok International Airport's relatively low elevation of 319 feet, planes can take off or land at Lombok International 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.
• Lombok International Airport (LOP) currently has only 1 runway.
• As Selaparang Airport never accommodated wide bodied aircraft it is expected that further international and domestic services will soon supplement the existing routes providing higher passenger loads and freight volumes to those of the existing airport at Ampenan.
• When the Lombok International Airport became operational all the existing flight schedules at Lombok's Selaparang Airport were moved across to the new airport.