Nonstop flight route between Gander, Newfoundland, Canada and Pituffik, Greenland:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Gander International Airport (YQX), Gander, Newfoundland, Canada and Thule Air Base (THU), Pituffik, Greenland would travel a Great Circle distance of 1,946 miles (or 3,131 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 relatively short distance between Gander International Airport and Thule Air Base, the route shown on this map most likely still appears to be a straight line.

Departure Airport Information:

Arrival Airport Information:

Facts about Gander International Airport (YQX):

• Officials at Gander International Airport have stated that the future for the airport is grim unless the federal government provides funding to cover costs.
• Gander International Airport (YQX) has 2 runways.
• Construction of the airport began in 1936 and it was opened in 1938, with its first landing on January 11 of that year, by Captain Douglas Fraser flying a Fox Moth of Imperial Airways.
• The furthest airport from Gander International Airport (YQX) is Albany Airport (ALH), which is located 11,395 miles (18,338 kilometers) away in Albany, Western Australia, Australia.
• The closest airport to Gander International Airport (YQX) is St. John's International Airport (YYT), which is located 124 miles (199 kilometers) SE of YQX.
• During the Cold War Gander was notable for the number of persons from the former Warsaw Pact nations who defected there.
• A major reason that Gander received so much traffic was partly due to its ability to handle large aircraft, but primarily because Transport Canada and Nav Canada instructed pilots coming from Europe to avoid the airports in major urban centres of Central Canada, like Lester B.
• Because of Gander International Airport's relatively low elevation of 496 feet, planes can take off or land at Gander International 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.

Facts about Thule Air Base (THU):

• A board of Air Force officers headed by Gordon P.
• Originally established as a Strategic Air Command installation, Thule would periodically serve as a dispersal base for B-36 Peacemaker and B-47 Stratojet aircraft during the 1950s, as well as providing an ideal site to test the operability and maintainability of these weapon systems in extreme cold weather.
• 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.
• The closest airport to Thule Air Base (THU) is Savissivik Heliport (SVR), which is located 69 miles (111 kilometers) ESE of THU.
• 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.
• In addition to being known as "Thule Air Base", another name for THU is "Thule AB".
• Thule became an Air Force Space Command base in 1982.
• Thule Air Base or Thule Air Base/Pituffik Airport, is the United States Air Force's northernmost base, located 1,207 km north of the Arctic Circle and 1,524 km from the North Pole on the northwest side of the island of Greenland.