Nonstop flight route between Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil and Zürich, Switzerland:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Santa Maria Airport (RIA), Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil and Zurich Airport (ZRH), Zürich, Switzerland would travel a Great Circle distance of 6,582 miles (or 10,593 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 Santa Maria Airport and Zurich 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 Santa Maria Airport and Zurich 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 Santa Maria Airport (RIA):

• It is operated by the Brazilian Air Force.
• In addition to being known as "Santa Maria Airport", another name for RIA is "Aeroporto de Santa Maria".
• The furthest airport from Santa Maria Airport (RIA) is Aguni Airport (AGJ), which is nearly antipodal to Santa Maria Airport (meaning Santa Maria Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Aguni Airport), and is located 12,214 miles (19,656 kilometers) away in Aguni, Japan.
• Since 1971, with the creation of the Santa Maria Air Force Base, civil and military facilities are shared.
• In 1944 the President of Brazil Getúlio Vargas allocated an area of 4 million square meters near Santa Maria with the purpose of building an aerodrome.
• The closest airport to Santa Maria Airport (RIA) is João Batista Bos Filho Airport (IJU), which is located 93 miles (150 kilometers) N of RIA.
• Santa Maria Airport (RIA) has 2 runways.
• Because of Santa Maria Airport's relatively low elevation of 289 feet, planes can take off or land at Santa Maria 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 Zurich Airport (ZRH):

• Zurich Airport railway station is located underneath the terminal.
• Zurich Airport (ZRH) has 4 runways.
• The airport lost a lot of traffic when Swissair shut down its operations.
• Swiss International Air Lines has an office on the property of Zurich Airport and in Kloten, consisting of the Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie buildings.Swiss World Cargo has its head office in the Alpha and Bravo buildings.Swiss Private Aviation has its head office in the Swiss complex.Swiss European Air Lines and Swiss AviationTraining, subsidiaries of Swiss, are also headquartered on the airport property.
• The furthest airport from Zurich Airport (ZRH) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is nearly antipodal to Zurich Airport (meaning Zurich Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Chatham Islands), and is located 12,087 miles (19,453 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• The closest airport to Zurich Airport (ZRH) is Emmen Swiss Air Base (EML), which is located 28 miles (45 kilometers) SSW of ZRH.
• In addition to being known as "Zurich Airport", another name for ZRH is "Flughafen Zürich".
• In 2003, Zurich Airport completed a major expansion project in which it built a new parking garage, a new midfield terminal, and an automated underground train to link the midfield terminal to the main terminal.
• Zurich Airport handled 24,865,138 passengers last year.