Nonstop flight route between Skopje, Macedonia and Fairford, England, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Skopje Airport (SKP), Skopje, Macedonia and RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 1,286 miles (or 2,070 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 relatively short distance between Skopje Airport and RAF Fairford, the route shown on this map most likely still appears to be a straight line.

Departure Airport Information:

Arrival Airport Information:

Facts about Skopje Airport (SKP):

• In December 2006 the government of the Republic of Macedonia announced plans to rename the airport after Alexander the Great, sparking a renewed diplomatic spat with Greece, because both countries consider Alexander the Great as part of their own heritage.
• The closest airport to Skopje Airport (SKP) is Pristina International Airport "Adem Jashari" (PRN), which is located 52 miles (84 kilometers) NW of SKP.
• In addition to being known as "Skopje Airport", other names for SKP include "Аеродром Скопје" and "Aerodrom Skopje".
• After the Second World War, Aeroput was replaced by JAT Yugoslav Airlines, which linked Skopje to a number of domestic and international destinations until the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.
• The furthest airport from Skopje Airport (SKP) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,514 miles (18,530 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• Because of Skopje Airport's relatively low elevation of 781 feet, planes can take off or land at Skopje 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.
• Skopje Airport (SKP) currently has only 1 runway.
• Skopje Airport handled 98,440 passengers last year.

Facts about RAF Fairford (FFD):

• Operations staff and maintenance personnel were permanently assigned, but aircraft, aircrews and crew chiefs were temporarily assigned to the 11th Strategic Group for the European Tanker Task Force on rotation.
• The runway was completed in 1953, and served as a forward airbase for the first Convair B-36 Peacemaker aircraft from Carswell Air Force Base, Texas.
• The closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.
• The furthest airport from RAF Fairford (FFD) is Dunedin International Airport (DUD), which is located 11,898 miles (19,148 kilometers) away in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
• On 14 January 2004, the 420th Air Base Group was established at RAF Fairford to improve the control of its geographically separated units that had been aligned beneath the 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall.
• On 12 May 2005, USAFE activated the 501st Combat Support Wing, with headquarters at RAF Alconbury, to provide support to its GSUs in the United Kingdom.
• RAF Fairford was the only TransOceanic Abort Landing site for NASA's Space Shuttle in the UK.