Nonstop flight route between Zweibrücken, Germany and Geilenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany:

About this route:

A direct, nonstop flight between Zweibrücken Airport (ZQW), Zweibrücken, Germany and NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen E–3A Component (GKE), Geilenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany would travel a Great Circle distance of 135 miles (or 218 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 Zweibrücken Airport and NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen E–3A Component, the route shown on this map most likely still appears to be a straight line.

Departure Airport Information:

Arrival Airport Information:

Facts about Zweibrücken Airport (ZQW):

• Zweibrücken Airport handled 220,740 passengers last year.
• In addition to being known as "Zweibrücken Airport", another name for ZQW is "Flughafen Zweibrücken".
• Zweibrücken Airport (ZQW) currently has only 1 runway.
• The furthest airport from Zweibrücken Airport (ZQW) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is nearly antipodal to Zweibrücken Airport (meaning Zweibrücken Airport is almost on the exact opposite side of the Earth from Chatham Islands), and is located 12,021 miles (19,346 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• A twice per week service was also operated between Zweibrücken and Antalya by Sky Airlines until the airline ceased operations due to financial problems in 2013.
• The closest airport to Zweibrücken Airport (ZQW) is Saarbrücken Airport (SCN), which is located only 13 miles (21 kilometers) W of ZQW.
• In 2006, Germanwings began a new twice-daily service to Berlin Schönefeld Airport, but ceased them in 2011 due to expensive airports taxes.

Facts about NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen E–3A Component (GKE):

• NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen E–3A Component (GKE) currently has only 1 runway.
• The furthest airport from NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen E–3A Component (GKE) is Chatham Islands (CHT), which is located 11,929 miles (19,198 kilometers) away in Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand.
• The Component operates seventeen Boeing E-3A AWACS aircraft all of which are based on the Boeing 707 airframe Trainer Cargo Aircraft but which have since been retired).
• The E-3A Component is NATO's first­ operational flying unit with multinational manning.
• Surrounded by farmland and a natural woodland reserve, the base was originally built by the Royal Air Force after World War II and operated as RAF Geilenkirchen from 1953 onwards.
• Flying operations at Geilenkirchen ended in January 1968 and the installation was handed over to the German Air Force in March 1968.
• The closest airport to NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen E–3A Component (GKE) is Merzbrück Airfield (AAH), which is located only 11 miles (18 kilometers) SSE of GKE.
• An Economic Impact Study compiled by the NATO E-3A Component shows a 2008 economic impact of 275.8 million euro within a 200-kilometer radius of the base.
• Because of NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen E–3A Component's relatively low elevation of 296 feet, planes can take off or land at NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen E–3A Component 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.