Nonstop flight route between Santa Maria, Portugal and Gaza, Palestine:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Santa Maria Airport (SMA), Santa Maria, Portugal and Yasser Arafat International Airport (CLOSED) (GZA), Gaza, Palestine would travel a Great Circle distance of 3,369 miles (or 5,422 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 Yasser Arafat International Airport (CLOSED), 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 Yasser Arafat International Airport (CLOSED). 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 (SMA):

• Santa Maria Airport handled 93,436 passengers last year.
• The airport at Santa Maria was part of a larger complex of buildings and infrastructures constructed in the 20th century.
• Because of Santa Maria Airport's relatively low elevation of 308 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.
• A chartered Boeing 707-300, Independent Air Flight 1851 from Bergamo, Italy in 1989 crashed on approach to Santa Maria Airport, when it struck the Pico Alto mountain.
• Santa Maria Airport (SMA) currently has only 1 runway.
• In addition to being known as "Santa Maria Airport", another name for SMA is "Aeroporto de Santa Maria".
• The furthest airport from Santa Maria Airport (SMA) is Moruya Airport (MYA), which is nearly antipodal to Santa Maria Airport (meaning Santa Maria Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Moruya Airport), and is located 12,166 miles (19,579 kilometers) away in Moruya, New South Wales, Australia.
• The closest airport to Santa Maria Airport (SMA) is João Paulo II Airport (PDL), which is located 60 miles (97 kilometers) NNW of SMA.

Facts about Yasser Arafat International Airport (CLOSED) (GZA):

• The furthest airport from Yasser Arafat International Airport (CLOSED) (GZA) is Rurutu Airport (RUR), which is located 11,736 miles (18,887 kilometers) away in Rurutu, French Polynesia.
• Because of the short supply in construction materials in Gaza, stones of the airport's tarmac are used for rebuilding other structures.
• The construction of the airport was provided for in the Oslo II Agreement of 1995.
• On 22 July 2010, 7,203 Gazan children between the ages of 6 and 15 participated in setting a new Guinness World Record for the simultaneous dribbling of basketballs on the airport's undamaged tarmac ramp.
• The closest airport to Yasser Arafat International Airport (CLOSED) (GZA) is Gaza Airstrip/Gush Katif Airport (GHK), which is located only 8 miles (14 kilometers) N of GZA.
• Because of Yasser Arafat International Airport (CLOSED)'s relatively low elevation of 320 feet, planes can take off or land at Yasser Arafat International Airport (CLOSED) 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 addition to being known as "Yasser Arafat International Airport (CLOSED)", another name for GZA is "مطار ياسر عرفات الدولي".
• Yasser Arafat International Airport (CLOSED) (GZA) currently has only 1 runway.