Nonstop flight route between Zürich, Switzerland and Birmingham, Alabama, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Zurich Airport (ZRH), Zürich, Switzerland and Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM), Birmingham, Alabama, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,780 miles (or 7,693 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 Zurich Airport and Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International 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 Zurich Airport and Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International 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 Zurich Airport (ZRH):

• Zurich Airport railway station is located underneath the terminal.
• The airport lost a lot of traffic when Swissair shut down its operations.
• Schengen and non-Schengen arriving passengers are handled in separate areas of the central airside building, with non-Schengen passengers passing through immigration controls to reach the ground-side terminal complex.
• Zurich Airport handled 24,865,138 passengers last year.
• The furthest airport from Zurich Airport (ZRH) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is nearly antipodal to Zurich Airport (meaning Zurich Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Chatham Islands), and is located 12,087 miles (19,453 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• The closest airport to Zurich Airport (ZRH) is Emmen Swiss Air Base (EML), which is located 28 miles (45 kilometers) SSW of ZRH.
• Zurich Airport (ZRH) has 4 runways.
• In front of the terminal is a regional bus station and the airport stop of the Stadtbahn Glattal, a light rail system.
• In addition to being known as "Zurich Airport", another name for ZRH is "Flughafen Zürich".

Facts about Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM):

• Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM) has 2 runways.
• In January 2013 typical commercial passenger traffic included Airbus A319/A320s, Boeing 737s, Embraer 170s, MD-80s, DC-9s, CRJ 900s, CRJ700s, CRJ 200s, and Embraer 145s models on about 128 take offs or landings daily.
• The closest airport to Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM) is St. Clair County Airport (PLR), which is located 29 miles (47 kilometers) E of BHM.
• Because of Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport's relatively low elevation of 650 feet, planes can take off or land at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth 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.
• World War II saw the airport leased to the United States Army Air Forces for $1 a year to support national defense.
• After the airport returned to city control in August 1948 Southern Airways began service.
• The on-going terminal expansion and modernization project is expected to result in significant changes to the appearance of the terminal and concourses.
• By 1959 Runway 5/23 was 10,000 feet and service was started to Birmingham by Capital Airlines with British-made Vickers Viscounts.
• The furthest airport from Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM) is Margaret River Airport (MGV), which is located 11,183 miles (17,998 kilometers) away in Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia.