Nonstop flight route between San Tomé, Venezuela and St Athan, Wales, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between San Tomé Airport (SOM), San Tomé, Venezuela and MoD St Athan (DGX), St Athan, Wales, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,490 miles (or 7,225 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 San Tomé Airport and MoD St Athan, 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 San Tomé Airport and MoD St Athan. 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 San Tomé Airport (SOM):

• The furthest airport from San Tomé Airport (SOM) is Selaparang Airport (AMI), which is nearly antipodal to San Tomé Airport (meaning San Tomé Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Selaparang Airport), and is located 12,405 miles (19,964 kilometers) away in Mataram, Indonesia.
• Because of San Tomé Airport's relatively low elevation of 837 feet, planes can take off or land at San Tomé 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.
• San Tomé Airport (SOM) currently has only 1 runway.
• The closest airport to San Tomé Airport (SOM) is El Tigre Airport (ELX), which is located only 9 miles (14 kilometers) SSW of SOM.
• In addition to being known as "San Tomé Airport", another name for SOM is "Aeropuerto Don Edmundo Barrios".

Facts about MoD St Athan (DGX):

• In March 2003 it was confirmed that a new hi-tech maintenance centre would be built, creating 3,300 jobs.
• MOD St Athan is a large Ministry of Defence unit near the village of St Athan in the Vale of Glamorgan, southern Wales.
• Because of MoD St Athan's relatively low elevation of 163 feet, planes can take off or land at MoD St Athan 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.
• The furthest airport from MoD St Athan (DGX) is Dunedin International Airport (DUD), which is located 11,960 miles (19,248 kilometers) away in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
• The closest airport to MoD St Athan (DGX) is Cardiff Airport (CWL), which is located only 4 miles (6 kilometers) E of DGX.
• In March 2004, however, DARA announced the loss of 550 jobs at St Athan as part of streamlining to make DARA more efficient and better able to compete with the private sector for lucrative aircraft repair contracts, but also because they lost out to a direct RAF bid for a contract to upgrade the air force's fleet of ageing Harrier jump jet aircraft.
• MoD St Athan (DGX) currently has only 1 runway.
• The base has been home to the RAF No.
• The MOD continued to negotiate the project with the Metrix Consortium, but the price rose several times, reaching £14 billion in mid-2009.