Farthest Airport Finder
MadridPalmerston North
24% of the world's airports are within 5,000 km of Madrid, and 81% within 10,000 km. No airline flies that far without stopping: the longest scheduled flight, Singapore to New York, is about 15,350 km. The world's longest flights
Measured along the Earth's surface between airports with an IATA code, leaving out helipads, military fields and Antarctica. The list of airports includes some small airstrips and a few that have closed, so the farthest one is not always somewhere you could book a flight to.
That is one route. Your map holds all of them.
My Flight Routes turns every flight you have taken into a single interactive map, with your own stats, milestones and a replay of everywhere you have been. Start it with this one.
Free, and you can start without an account.
Every airport has a far side of the world: a place you cannot get any further from without starting to come back. Pick an airport and see the ten farthest airports from it, where its exact opposite point lands, and how much of the world's network is within a few hours.
How it works
- Pick an airport. The link in the address bar shares the result.
- The distance to every other airport in the world is measured along the Earth's surface, the way a plane would fly it.
- The map is centred on your airport and keeps every distance true, so the airports near the orange edge are as far away as it is possible to go.
Opposite sides of the world
Most land is opposite ocean, which makes the places that do line up surprising:
- Madrid and New Zealand are each other's far side: Madrid's exact opposite point is on land near Palmerston North, and the farthest airport from Auckland is Málaga.
- Singapore's opposite point is in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Lima's is in Cambodia, and Hong Kong's is on the border between Bolivia and Argentina.
- From Madrid, half the world's airports are within about 7,400 km. From Sydney you have to go more than 13,000 km to reach half of them.
- No two airports can be more than about 20,000 km apart, half the way round the planet. The longest flight in service covers about three quarters of that.
Frequently asked questions
What is the farthest you can fly from an airport?
Nothing on Earth is more than about 20,000 km away from anything else: that is half the planet's circumference, the distance to the exact opposite point. Nearly every airport has another airport between 18,000 and 20,000 km away.
What is an antipode?
The point on the exact opposite side of the Earth: same latitude on the other side of the equator, and 180 degrees of longitude round. Drill straight through the centre of the planet and that is where you come out.
Can you fly nonstop to the farthest airport?
Not yet. The longest scheduled flight today, Singapore to New York, is about 15,350 km, around three quarters of the way to the far side of the world. Reaching the farthest airport takes at least one stop.
Why are so many opposite points in the ocean?
Because most of the Earth is ocean, and most land happens to be opposite water. Pairs of places that are both on land, like Spain and New Zealand or Argentina and China, are the exception.
Why does the map look stretched at the edge?
It is drawn so that every distance from the centre is true, the same projection as the emblem of the United Nations. Keeping distances true near the far side of the world means stretching it round the edge, which is why the farthest airports sit on the rim.
Find the far side of your world.