Nonstop flight route between Zürich, Switzerland and Buka Island, Papua New Guinea:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Zurich Airport (ZRH), Zürich, Switzerland and Buka Island Airport (BUA), Buka Island, Papua New Guinea would travel a Great Circle distance of 8,908 miles (or 14,337 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 Buka Island 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 Buka Island 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 noise of aircraft became an issue and a noise charge was instituted in 1980, and in 1984, an agreement was made regarding arrivals and departures to the airport via German airspace.
• 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.
• In front of the terminal is a regional bus station and the airport stop of the Stadtbahn Glattal, a light rail system.
• The airport lost a lot of traffic when Swissair shut down its operations.
• Zurich Airport (ZRH) has 4 runways.
• 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.
• The airport was again submitted and approved for renovation in 1970, and Terminal B was completed in 1971.
• The closest airport to Zurich Airport (ZRH) is Emmen Swiss Air Base (EML), which is located 28 miles (45 kilometers) SSW of ZRH.
• In addition to being known as "Zurich Airport", another name for ZRH is "Flughafen Zürich".
• Zurich Airport handled 24,865,138 passengers last year.

Facts about Buka Island Airport (BUA):

• The furthest airport from Buka Island Airport (BUA) is São Filipe Airport (SFL), which is located 11,781 miles (18,959 kilometers) away in Fogo, Cape Verde.
• The closest airport to Buka Island Airport (BUA) is Nissan Island Airport (IIS), which is located 71 miles (114 kilometers) NNW of BUA.
• Buka Island Airport (BUA) currently has only 1 runway.
• On 26 July, an Imperial Japanese Navy special detachment was sent to inspect Buka Airfield, but considered it unacceptable as a prospect for a speedily constructed major airfield.
• It is located at the southern end of the island, near Buka Passage behind the town of Buka, and pre-war Chinatown.
• Because of Buka Island Airport's relatively low elevation of 11 feet, planes can take off or land at Buka Island 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.