Nonstop flight route between Zürich, Switzerland and Fairbanks, Alaska, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Zurich Airport (ZRH), Zürich, Switzerland and Fairbanks International Airport (FAI), Fairbanks, Alaska, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 4,576 miles (or 7,364 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 Fairbanks 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 Fairbanks 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):

• The airport is served by the A51 motorway and other main roads, which provide access to the airport especially for the central and eastern Switzerland.
• Zurich Airport (ZRH) has 4 runways.
• 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.
• When Swissair existed, its head office was at Zurich Airport and in Kloten.
• 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 handled 24,865,138 passengers last year.
• The ground-side terminal complex comprises several buildings, and includes several airline check-in areas, a shopping mall, a railway station, car parks, and a bus and tram terminal.
• In 2003, Zurich Airport completed a major expansion project in which it built a new parking garage, a new midfield terminal, and an automated underground train to link the midfield terminal to the main terminal.
• In addition to being known as "Zurich Airport", another name for ZRH is "Flughafen Zürich".

Facts about Fairbanks International Airport (FAI):

• The closest airport to Fairbanks International Airport (FAI) is Ladd Army Airfield (FBK), which is located only 7 miles (12 kilometers) ENE of FAI.
• The furthest airport from Fairbanks International Airport (FAI) is Port Elizabeth International Airport (PLZ), which is located 10,289 miles (16,558 kilometers) away in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
• The airport serves many cargo airlines as a convenient refueling stop for some aircraft on trans-polar routes.
• Because of Fairbanks International Airport's relatively low elevation of 434 feet, planes can take off or land at Fairbanks 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.
• Fairbanks International Airport (FAI) has 4 runways.
• Pan Am eventually used Fairbanks as a stopover for transpacific service from New York and Seattle to Tokyo starting in September 1969.