Nonstop flight route between Pituffik, Greenland and Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Thule Air Base (THU), Pituffik, Greenland and Tenerife-South Airport (TFS), Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain would travel a Great Circle distance of 3,752 miles (or 6,039 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 Thule Air Base and Tenerife-South 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 Thule Air Base and Tenerife-South 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 Thule Air Base (THU):

• Knud Rasmussen was the first to recognize the Pituffik plain as ideal for an airport.
• On 21 January 1968, a B-52G Stratofortress from the 380th Strategic Aerospace Wing, Plattsburgh Air Force Base, New York on a secret airborne nuclear alert crashed and burned on the ice near Thule Air Base.
• In addition to being known as "Thule Air Base", another name for THU is "Thule AB".
• Late 1950s the DEW 1 to 4 where build as "weather stations", Thule Air Base would act as an supply station for the DYE bases.
• The furthest airport from Thule Air Base (THU) is Hobart International Airport (HBA), which is located 9,883 miles (15,905 kilometers) away in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
• The closest airport to Thule Air Base (THU) is Savissivik Heliport (SVR), which is located 69 miles (111 kilometers) ESE of THU.
• A cluster of huts known as Pituffik stood on the wide plain where the base was built in 1951.
• After the German occupation of Denmark on 9 April 1940, Henrik Kauffmann Danish Ambassador to the United States, made an agreement "In the name of the king" with the United States authorizing the United States to defend the Danish colonies on Greenland from German aggression - this agreement faced Kaufmann with a charge of high treason.
• In 1957 construction began on 4 Nike Missile sites around the base, and they and their radar systems were operational by the end of 1958.
• Thule AB was constructed in secret under the code name Operation Blue Jay, but the project was made public in September 1952.

Facts about Tenerife-South Airport (TFS):

• Because of Tenerife-South Airport's relatively low elevation of 209 feet, planes can take off or land at Tenerife-South 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.
• The closest airport to Tenerife-South Airport (TFS) is Tenerife North Airport (TFN), which is located 33 miles (54 kilometers) NNE of TFS.
• The airport was opened by Queen Sofía on 6 November 1978.
• Tenerife-South Airport handled 8,701,983 passengers last year.
• Tenerife South Airport, previously known as Tenerife South-Reina Sofia Airport, is one of two international airports located on the island of Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands.
• In addition to being known as "Tenerife-South Airport", other names for TFS include "Aeropuerto de Tenerife Sur" and "Tenerife Sur/Reina Sofía Airport".
• Tenerife South handled over 8.5 million passengers in 2012.
• The furthest airport from Tenerife-South Airport (TFS) is Norfolk Island Airport (NLK), which is nearly antipodal to Tenerife-South Airport (meaning Tenerife-South Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Norfolk Island Airport), and is located 12,154 miles (19,561 kilometers) away in Norfolk Island, Australia.
• Tenerife-South Airport (TFS) currently has only 1 runway.