Nonstop flight route between Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Sofia, Bulgaria:
Departure Airport:
Arrival Airport:
Distance from FFD to SOF:
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- About this route
- FFD Airport Information
- SOF Airport Information
- Facts about FFD
- Facts about SOF
- Map of Nearest Airports to FFD
- List of Nearest Airports to FFD
- Map of Furthest Airports from FFD
- List of Furthest Airports from FFD
- Map of Nearest Airports to SOF
- List of Nearest Airports to SOF
- Map of Furthest Airports from SOF
- List of Furthest Airports from SOF
About this route:
A direct, nonstop flight between RAF Fairford (FFD), Fairford, England, United Kingdom and Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna (SOF), Sofia, Bulgaria would travel a Great Circle distance of 1,327 miles (or 2,135 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 RAF Fairford and Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna, the route shown on this map most likely still appears to be a straight line.
Departure Airport Information:
IATA / ICAO Codes: | FFD / EGVA |
Airport Name: | RAF Fairford |
Location: | Fairford, England, United Kingdom |
GPS Coordinates: | 51°40'55"N by 1°47'24"W |
Operator/Owner: | Ministry of Defence |
View all routes: | Routes from FFD |
More Information: | FFD Maps & Info |
Arrival Airport Information:
IATA / ICAO Codes: | SOF / LBSF |
Airport Names: |
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Location: | Sofia, Bulgaria |
GPS Coordinates: | 42°41'42"N by 23°24'29"E |
Area Served: | Sofia, Bulgaria |
Operator/Owner: | Sofia Airport EAD |
Airport Type: | Public |
Elevation: | 1742 feet (531 meters) |
# of Runways: | 1 |
View all routes: | Routes from SOF |
More Information: | SOF Maps & Info |
Facts about RAF Fairford (FFD):
- Due to the deteriorating airfield facilities and its unique NATO heavy bomber mission, RAF Fairford underwent a $100 million upgrade of its runway and fuel systems in the largest NATO funded airfield construction project within a NATO country since the end of the Cold War.
- In the early years of the Cold War the British and American governments reached an agreement under which elements of the USAF Strategic Air Command would be based in the UK.
- The closest airport to RAF Fairford (FFD) is RAF Brize Norton (BZZ), which is located only 10 miles (16 kilometers) ENE of FFD.
- The runway was completed in 1953, and served as a forward airbase for the first Convair B-36 Peacemaker aircraft from Carswell Air Force Base, Texas.
- In 1950, as a result of the beginning of the Cold War, the airfield was transferred to the U.S.
- On 15 September 2009, it was announced that the USAF will withdraw all their uniformed staff from the station by September 2010, after which it will be run on a "care and maintenance" basis.
- On 14 January 2004, the 420th Air Base Group was established at RAF Fairford to improve the control of its geographically separated units that had been aligned beneath the 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall.
- The furthest airport from RAF Fairford (FFD) is Dunedin International Airport (DUD), which is located 11,898 miles (19,148 kilometers) away in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
Facts about Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna (SOF):
- In addition to being known as "Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna", other names for SOF include "Vrazhdebna Airport" and "Летище София".
- Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna (SOF) currently has only 1 runway.
- Options for different airport developments began to be examined in the mid-1960s.
- In 2004 Strabag demanded an additional 6 million euro due to rising steel prices.
- The initial completion deadline for the new terminal was 15 December 2004 to a total budget of 112.2 million euro.
- The closest airport to Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna (SOF) is Plovdiv Airport (PDV), which is located 86 miles (138 kilometers) ESE of SOF.
- The furthest airport from Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna (SOF) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,437 miles (18,405 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
- Sofia Airport Vrazhdebna handled 350,432 passengers last year.
- Two de-icing platforms are constructed to allow centralised de-icing procedures in winter.
- A significant and recurring operational criticism of Sofia Airport has concerned its historical lack of all-weather operations capability.
- The manager will have full visibility over the airport, to guide aircraft landing and taking off.