Nonstop flight route between Upington, South Africa and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Upington Airport (UTN), Upington, South Africa and Santos Dumont Airport (SDU), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil would travel a Great Circle distance of 3,984 miles (or 6,411 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 Upington Airport and Santos Dumont 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 Upington Airport and Santos Dumont 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 Upington Airport (UTN):

• Upington Airport's uncommonly long runway and its strategically advantageous location, close to South Africa's northern borders, makes it ideally placed to serve the African continent.
• With the fall of the Portuguese regime in Angola, South African Airways lost its landing rights in Luanda.
• The furthest airport from Upington Airport (UTN) is Princeville Airport (HPV), which is nearly antipodal to Upington Airport (meaning Upington Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Princeville Airport), and is located 12,007 miles (19,323 kilometers) away in Hanalei, Hawaii, United States.
• The closest airport to Upington Airport (UTN) is Johan Pienaar Airport (KMH), which is located 147 miles (236 kilometers) ENE of UTN.
• Upington Airport (UTN) has 3 runways.
• Private charter flights are provided by Walker Flying Services who operates Cessna 210 and Cessna 402 aircraft.

Facts about Santos Dumont Airport (SDU):

• A new public terminal building for seaplanes was inaugurated on 29 October 1938.
• Santos Dumont Airport is the second major airport serving Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• It was announced on 5 August 2009 that in order to renew its operational licence the Rio de Janeiro State Environment Institute – INEA would require Santos Dumont Airport to adjust operational standards.
• In 1934, in order to handle a growing amount of land operations, land was reclaimed from the sea to create the first runway of the airport with a length of 1,300 feet.
• The closest airport to Santos Dumont Airport (SDU) is Rio de Janeiro/Galeão–Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport (GIG), which is located only 9 miles (14 kilometers) NW of SDU.
• Santos Dumont Airport (SDU) has 2 runways.
• The furthest airport from Santos Dumont Airport (SDU) is Central Field (Iwo Jima)Motoyama No. 2Airfield No. 2 (IWO), which is nearly antipodal to Santos Dumont Airport (meaning Santos Dumont Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Central Field (Iwo Jima)Motoyama No. 2Airfield No. 2), and is located 12,125 miles (19,513 kilometers) away in Iwo Jima, Bonin Islands, Japan.
• In addition to being known as "Santos Dumont Airport", another name for SDU is "Aeroporto Santos Dumont".
• Santos Dumont Airport handled 9,204,603 passengers last year.
• Because of Santos Dumont Airport's relatively low elevation of 11 feet, planes can take off or land at Santos Dumont 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.