Nonstop flight route between Santa Barbara, California, United States and Queenstown, New Zealand:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Santa Barbara Airport (SBA), Santa Barbara, California, United States and Queenstown Airport (ZQN), Queenstown, New Zealand would travel a Great Circle distance of 7,073 miles (or 11,382 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 Barbara Airport and Queenstown 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 Barbara Airport and Queenstown 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 Barbara Airport (SBA):

• Besides American and United, other airlines operating jets from SBA included Pacific Air Lines with Boeing 727-100s to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Monterey, Continental Airlines with nonstop Boeing 737-300s to Denver, Air West with Boeing 727-100s as well as McDonnell Douglas DC-9-10s and DC-9-30s to Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities, Allegiant Air with McDonnell Douglas MD-80s to Las Vegas, Pacific Express with British Aircraft Corporation BAC One-Elevens to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Bakersfield, Air Wisconsin with British Aerospace BAe 146-200 and BAe 146-300s to Denver, and ExpressJet flying Embraer ERJ-145s nonstop to Sacramento and San Diego.
• Because of Santa Barbara Airport's relatively low elevation of 10 feet, planes can take off or land at Santa Barbara 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.
• As airplane manufacturing grew in the late 1930s that airstrip developed into an airfield.
• Santa Barbara Airport (SBA) has 3 runways.
• The closest airport to Santa Barbara Airport (SBA) is Santa Ynez Airport (SQA), which is located only 18 miles (29 kilometers) NW of SBA.
• In the 1980s Apollo Airways, a commuter airline based in Santa Barbara that changed its name to Pacific Coast Airlines, flew Handley Page HP.137 Jetstreams from the airport.
• Until 2002 Santa Barbara Airport was on a mainline jet aircraft route between San Francisco and Los Angeles.
• In 1947 the Santa Barbara Flying Club was formed to promote general aviation in the region.
• The furthest airport from Santa Barbara Airport (SBA) is Pierrefonds Airport (ZSE), which is located 11,487 miles (18,486 kilometers) away in Saint-Pierre, Réunion.
• In the 1951 war film Flying Leathernecks, John Wayne's character was stationed in Goleta.

Facts about Queenstown Airport (ZQN):

• Queenstown Airport (ZQN) has 2 runways.
• Queenstown has become one of New Zealand's leading airports for passenger numbers.
• The furthest airport from Queenstown Airport (ZQN) is A Coruña Airport (LCG), which is nearly antipodal to Queenstown Airport (meaning Queenstown Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from A Coruña Airport), and is located 12,251 miles (19,716 kilometers) away in A Coruña, Spain.
• The closest airport to Queenstown Airport (ZQN) is Wanaka Airport (WKA), which is located 32 miles (52 kilometers) NE of ZQN.
• In another separate incident in June 2010 two airliners were found to have had a high potential to have breached the 1000 foot vertical separation required.
• Queenstown Airport came seventh in PrivateFly.com's 2011 survey to find the world's best airport approaches.
• In July 2011 newly installed runway lights were turned on for the first time.