Nonstop flight route between Pico Island, Azores, Portugal and Quoin Hill, Vanuatu:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Pico Airport (PIX), Pico Island, Azores, Portugal and Quoin Hill Airfield (UIQ), Quoin Hill, Vanuatu would travel a Great Circle distance of 8,410 miles (or 13,534 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 Pico Airport and Quoin Hill Airfield, 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 Pico Airport and Quoin Hill Airfield. 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 Pico Airport (PIX):

• Pico Airport (PIX) currently has only 1 runway.
• In addition to being known as "Pico Airport", another name for PIX is "Aeroporto do Pico".
• The closest airport to Pico Airport (PIX) is Horta International Airport (HOR), which is located only 15 miles (24 kilometers) W of PIX.
• In 1990, with the arrival of new ATP aircraft for SATA Air Açores' fleet, the decision was taken to extend the runway, to improve operations with this type of aircraft.
• Managed by SATA Gestão de Aeródromos, it has an 1,754 metres operational runway, with a width of 45 metres.
• Pico Airport is an airport located 8 km from Madalena on the Portuguese island of Pico in the archipelago of the Azores.
• The first studies were completed to construct a runway for the remote island of Pico during the post-War era when, instead, a final decision in 1946 saw the construction of an aerodrome on the island of Faial.
• The furthest airport from Pico Airport (PIX) is Merimbula Airport (MIM), which is nearly antipodal to Pico Airport (meaning Pico Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Merimbula Airport), and is located 12,291 miles (19,781 kilometers) away in Merimbula, New South Wales, Australia.
• Because of Pico Airport's relatively low elevation of 112 feet, planes can take off or land at Pico 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.

Facts about Quoin Hill Airfield (UIQ):

• The furthest airport from Quoin Hill Airfield (UIQ) is RAF Ascension (ASI), which is located 11,749 miles (18,907 kilometers) away in Georgetown, Ascension Island, Saint Helena.
• A site was chosen for a bomber airfield and in October the Seebees started constructing a 6,000 feet by 200 feet runway which was completed by the middle of January 1943.
• Investigations took place in the late 1980s as to whether Quoin Hill could be used as an alternate for Bauerfield International Airport, but this never came to fruition.
• Quoin Hill Airfield was an airfield in North Efate, in Vanuatu.
• The closest airport to Quoin Hill Airfield (UIQ) is Wake Island Airfield (AWK), which is located 169 miles (272 kilometers) NW of UIQ.
• With Japanese forces establishing bases on Guadalcanal which threatened the sea route between the U.S.