Featured Maps: Longest Possible Domestic Flights (16 May 2010)

A recent thread on the Great Circle Mapper's Facebook page debated the longest possible domestic flight. One proposal was SJU-GUM which technically is a domestic flight within the United States: SJU is in the US territory of Puerto Rico and GUM is in the US territory of Guam.

Using territories is a technicality, if not cheating, and someone objected, suggesting Russia. Counting only airports with sizeable runways, the longest Russian trip seems to be EGO-OVS, from Belgorod, near the border with Turkey, to Provideniya Bay, across the Bering Strait from Alaska and the closest Russian airport to the United States. St. Petersburg is farther west than Belgorod but is also farther north which puts it closer to Provideniya Bay via a great circle path.

That still doesn't top some of the longest trips within the United States, even excluding territories and islands. The longest seems to be MIA-CDB, about 3.3% longer than EGO-OVS. Miami is in southeastern Florida while Cold Bay is near the end of the Aleutian Peninsula, where the continuous land of North America is broken and the Aleutians become a chain of islands.

Can you find a longer domestic trip in any country?