Nonstop flight route between Yola, Nigeria and Lakenheath, England, United Kingdom:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Yola Airport (YOL), Yola, Nigeria and RAF Lakenheath (LKZ), Lakenheath, England, United Kingdom would travel a Great Circle distance of 3,055 miles (or 4,917 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 Yola Airport and RAF Lakenheath, 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 Yola Airport and RAF Lakenheath. 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 Yola Airport (YOL):

• The closest airport to Yola Airport (YOL) is Garoua International Airport (GOU), which is located 64 miles (103 kilometers) E of YOL.
• The furthest airport from Yola Airport (YOL) is Fitiuta Airport (FTI), which is nearly antipodal to Yola Airport (meaning Yola Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Fitiuta Airport), and is located 12,072 miles (19,428 kilometers) away in Fiti‘uta, American Samoa, United States.
• Yola Airport handled 108,677 passengers last year.
• Because of Yola Airport's relatively low elevation of 599 feet, planes can take off or land at Yola 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.
• Yola Airport (YOL) currently has only 1 runway.

Facts about RAF Lakenheath (LKZ):

• The closest airport to RAF Lakenheath (LKZ) is RAF Mildenhall (MHZ), which is located only 4 miles (7 kilometers) SW of LKZ.
• By 1950, Lakenheath was one of three main operating bases for the U.S.
• In 1940, the Air Ministry selected Lakenheath as an alternative for RAF Mildenhall and used it as a decoy airfield.
• Cold War tensions with the Soviet Union in Europe began as early as 1946.
• On 1 May 1951, Lakenheath was transferred from USAFE to SAC, and placed under the 3909th Air Base Group.
• The furthest airport from RAF Lakenheath (LKZ) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,827 miles (19,034 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• In 1941, hard runways were put down with the main runway, 04/22, being 2,000 yards, and the subsidiaries, 12/30 at 1,300 yards and 16/34 at 1,400 yards.
• A near nuclear accident occurred on 27 July 1956 – when a B-47 bomber crashed into a storage igloo at Lakenheath containing three MK-6 nuclear weapons while on a routine training mission.