Nonstop flight route between Zürich, Switzerland and Portland, Maine, United States:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Zurich Airport (ZRH), Zürich, Switzerland and Portland International Jetport (PWM), Portland, Maine, United States would travel a Great Circle distance of 3,656 miles (or 5,883 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 Portland International Jetport, 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 Portland International Jetport. 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):

• In addition to being known as "Zurich Airport", another name for ZRH is "Flughafen Zürich".
• The first expansion of the airport was submitted in 1956, but the budget for the expansion was not approved by the Swiss Government until 1958 and the expansion was completed in 1961.
• Zurich Airport handled 24,865,138 passengers last year.
• 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.
• Zurich Airport, also known as Zurich Kloten Airport, is the largest international airport of Switzerland and the principal hub of Swiss International Air Lines.
• The closest airport to Zurich Airport (ZRH) is Emmen Swiss Air Base (EML), which is located 28 miles (45 kilometers) SSW of ZRH.
• 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.

Facts about Portland International Jetport (PWM):

• In 1995 a terminal building improvement project was undertaken to add two-second-level boarding gates, as well as additional space for ticketing, operations, departure lounge, concessions, and an international customs facility.
• In 1972 Northeast Airlines was bought by Delta Air Lines which retained its routes to Bangor, Boston, and New York.
• On September 1, 2005 Delta Air Lines ended mainline service to PWM.
• Also in 2010, Air Canada announced that it would be launching a number of new routes out of Toronto, including a flight to Portland.
• The closest airport to Portland International Jetport (PWM) is Naval Air Station Brunswick (NHZ), which is located 25 miles (40 kilometers) NE of PWM.
• In 1982 PWM got its first nonstop beyond New York, when Delta tried a 727 to Cincinnati for a year or so.
• That year regional Air New England began service in Portland, competing with Northeast Airlines intrastate and between Portland and Boston.
• Portland International Jetport (PWM) has 2 runways.
• 1986 also brought US Airways, who began flights to Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
• The furthest airport from Portland International Jetport (PWM) is Margaret River Airport (MGV), which is located 11,705 miles (18,838 kilometers) away in Margaret River, Western Australia, Australia.
• The airport is the busiest in the state.
• Because of Portland International Jetport's relatively low elevation of 76 feet, planes can take off or land at Portland International Jetport 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.