Nonstop flight route between Manzini, Swaziland and Bilbao, Spain:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Matsapha Airport (MTS), Manzini, Swaziland and Bilbao Airport (BIO), Bilbao, Spain would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,291 miles (or 8,515 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 Matsapha Airport and Bilbao 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 Matsapha Airport and Bilbao 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 Matsapha Airport (MTS):

• The furthest airport from Matsapha Airport (MTS) is Hana Airport (HNM), which is located 11,827 miles (19,034 kilometers) away in Hana, Hawaii, United States.
• The closest airport to Matsapha Airport (MTS) is Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport (MQP), which is located 80 miles (129 kilometers) N of MTS.
• Matsapha Airport (MTS) currently has only 1 runway.

Facts about Bilbao Airport (BIO):

• The closest airport to Bilbao Airport (BIO) is Vitoria-Gasteiz Airport (VIT), which is located 30 miles (49 kilometers) SSE of BIO.
• In 1996, a new taxiway with two rapid exits and a new aircraft parking apron were built.
• Bilbao Airport (BIO) has 2 runways.
• In addition to being known as "Bilbao Airport", another name for BIO is "Bilboko aireportua (eu) Aeropuerto de Bilbao (es)".
• The furthest airport from Bilbao Airport (BIO) is Hood Aerodrome (MRO), which is nearly antipodal to Bilbao Airport (meaning Bilbao Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Hood Aerodrome), and is located 12,260 miles (19,730 kilometers) away in Masterton, New Zealand.
• Bilbao Airport handled 3,800,789 passengers last year.
• On 19 February 1985, an Iberia flight from Madrid crashed into Mount Oiz, all passengers and crew died.
• In February 2009 plans were announced to expand the terminal building, the facilities and the car parking so as to double the current capacity to 8 million passengers.
• Between 1964 and 1965, an instrumental ILS landing system and a meteorological radio for storm detection were installed.
• Because of Bilbao Airport's relatively low elevation of 137 feet, planes can take off or land at Bilbao 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 airport has seen a constant increase in its traffic numbers, the old terminal was already saturated and obsolete in 1990, although it had been renewed only a few years earlier.
• With the past increase of traffic, the terminal would have become saturated again in a year because it is designed to handle about 4.5 million passengers per year, in 2007 it went nearly to its maximum capacity.
• Bilbao Airport is a public airport located 9 km north of Bilbao, in the municipality of Loiu, in Biscay.