Nonstop flight route between Santa Barbara, California, United States and Zürich, Switzerland:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Santa Barbara Airport (SBA), Santa Barbara, California, United States and Zurich Airport (ZRH), Zürich, Switzerland would travel a Great Circle distance of 5,940 miles (or 9,559 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 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 Barbara 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 Barbara Airport (SBA):

• There are two fixed based operators on the field, Signature Flight Support and Atlantic Aviation, and three flight schools, Above All Aviation, Red Baron Aviation, and Spitfire Aviation.
• The closest airport to Santa Barbara Airport (SBA) is Santa Ynez Airport (SQA), which is located only 18 miles (29 kilometers) NW of SBA.
• As the prospect of war escalated the United States Government established a program to construct 250 airports across the country on a cost-sharing basis with local governments.
• 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.
• 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.
• In the 1951 war film Flying Leathernecks, John Wayne's character was stationed in Goleta.
• 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.
• Santa Barbara Airport (SBA) has 3 runways.

Facts about Zurich Airport (ZRH):

• 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 railway station is located underneath the terminal.
• Zurich Airport handled 24,865,138 passengers last year.
• The closest airport to Zurich Airport (ZRH) is Emmen Swiss Air Base (EML), which is located 28 miles (45 kilometers) SSW of ZRH.
• Zurich Airport (ZRH) has 4 runways.
• The first flights off the west runway were not until 1948.
• 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.
• In addition to being known as "Zurich Airport", another name for ZRH is "Flughafen Zürich".
• Schengen and non-Schengen arriving passengers are handled in separate areas of the central airside building, with non-Schengen passengers passing through immigration controls to reach the ground-side terminal complex.