Nonstop flight route between Ürümqi, Xinjiang, China and Houston, Texas, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Ürümqi Diwopu International Airport (URC), Ürümqi, Xinjiang, China and Ellington Field Joint Reserve BaseEllington Air Force BaseEllington Field (EFD), Houston, Texas, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 7,355 miles (or 11,836 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 Ürümqi Diwopu International Airport and Ellington Field Joint Reserve BaseEllington Air Force BaseEllington Field, 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 Ürümqi Diwopu International Airport and Ellington Field Joint Reserve BaseEllington Air Force BaseEllington Field. 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 Ürümqi Diwopu International Airport (URC):

• The closest airport to Ürümqi Diwopu International Airport (URC) is Turpan Jiaohe Airport (TLQ), which is located 102 miles (163 kilometers) SE of URC.
• Ürümqi Diwopu International Airport handled 11,078,597 passengers last year.
• Ürümqi Diwopu International Airport (URC) currently has only 1 runway.
• Ürümqi Airport was opened to foreign passengers in 1973, and has been the emergency landing ground for airlines to Europe and west Asia.
• In addition to being known as "Ürümqi Diwopu International Airport", other names for URC include "ئۈرۈمچى دىئوپا خەلقئارا ئايروپورتى乌鲁木齐地窝堡国际机场" and "Wūlǔmùqí Dìwōpù Guójì Jīcháng".
• Construction of Terminal 3 to the west of the older terminal building began in April 2007 at a cost of 2.8 billion yuan.
• The furthest airport from Ürümqi Diwopu International Airport (URC) is Gamboa Airport (WCA), which is located 11,489 miles (18,490 kilometers) away in Castro, Chile.
• When the airline existed, China Xinjiang Airlines had its headquarters on the airport property.

Facts about Ellington Field Joint Reserve BaseEllington Air Force BaseEllington Field (EFD):

• During 1958–59, USAF navigator training training operations were consolidated at Mather AFB and James Connally AFB, followed by a second consolidation to Mather AFB as the sole training location in the early 1960s.
• New construction designated under the "Grow the Army" project was completed in 2010.
• The closest airport to Ellington Field Joint Reserve BaseEllington Air Force BaseEllington Field (EFD) is William P. Hobby Airport (HOU), which is located only 8 miles (12 kilometers) WNW of EFD.
• In addition to being known as "Ellington Field Joint Reserve BaseEllington Air Force BaseEllington Field", another name for EFD is "Ellington Field JRB".
• World War II, with its increasing need for trained pilots, helped to reestablish Ellington Field as an active facility.
• The furthest airport from Ellington Field Joint Reserve BaseEllington Air Force BaseEllington Field (EFD) is Cocos (Keeling) Island Airport (CCK), which is located 11,008 miles (17,716 kilometers) away in Cocos Islands, Australia.
• Though the 111th Observation Squadron had the excess World War I storage and maintenance facilities at Ellington Field, the squadron did not have a true headquarters building.
• During World War I, Ellington served as an advanced flight training base.