使用Google API的航班距离

Question

I have been desperately trying to make a flight distance calculator using Google API.

The closest I have come is getting road distance, using an answer posted on another SO question (Distance from point A to B using Google Maps, PHP and MySQL), which was as follows:

$from = "Więckowskiego 72, Łódź";
$to = "Gazowa 1, Łódź";

$from = urlencode($from);
$to = urlencode($to);

$data = file_get_contents("http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/distancematrix/json?origins=$from&destinations=$to&language=en-EN&sensor=false");
$data = json_decode($data);

$time = 0;
$distance = 0;

foreach($data->rows[0]->elements as $road) {
    $time += $road->duration->value;
    $distance += $road->distance->value;
}

echo "To: ".$data->destination_addresses[0];
echo "<br/>";
echo "From: ".$data->origin_addresses[0];
echo "<br/>";
echo "Time: ".$time." seconds";
echo "<br/>";
echo "Distance: ".$distance." meters";

Output:

To: Gazowa 1, 91-076 Łódź, Poland
From: Więckowskiego 72, Łódź, Poland
Time: 206 seconds
Distance: 1488 meters

Is there any simple way of getting the above to provide the distance as the crow flies?