Random Scariest Airports To Land At (13 items)

• 

  (#1) Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport

  • Saba, Netherlands

  Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport is located in Saba in the Caribbean Islands. If a traveler wants to fly into Saba, they will have to land at Juancho E. Yrausquin, as it is the only airport on the island.

  It features the shortest commercial runway in the world, measuring a mere 1,312 feet. There is absolutely no room for error since the runway ends with high cliffs on both sides, and the Caribbean Sea awaits at the bottom of the cliffs.
• 

  (#2) Paro Airport

  • Paro District, Bhutan

  Paro Airport in Bhutan is located in the mountains of the Himalayas at 1.5 miles above sea level, with a short runway measuring only 6,500 feet long. Boeing even called it "one of the world's most difficult [airports] for takeoffs and landings." 

  It is so treacherous that only eight pilots are qualified to land in the remote region - their special training allows them to navigate their way through houses on the mountain, strong winds, valleys, and heavy turbulence. In fact, until 2011 only one airline could land their planes there.
• 

  (#3) Tenzing-Hillary Airport

  • Lukla, Nepal

  Imagine setting out to climb Mount Everest - but it's the airplane landing that is the riskiest part of the journey. Most climbers who plan to summit Everest first need to fly into Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Nepal. The airport's landing strip is not only relatively short - at 1,729 feet long - but it also sits atop a steep cliff that has been carved into the mountainside. Pilots also have to navigate their way through harsh, variable weather and snow-covered mountains.

  If that isn't troublesome enough, there isn't even a radar system in place at Tenzing-Hillary. This means a voice communications system is the only way to track the weather. Air traffic controller Dinesh Koirala describes how he communicates with pilots flying into Nepal:

  The pilots tell us when they are approaching, we give them updates on wind and traffic, then as the aircraft enters Lukla valley, we warn choppers to steer clear for the landing... It's unfair to call Lukla the most dangerous airport when there's not much we can do about the terrain or the weather.

  However, Nischal K.C., a helicopter pilot who has often navigated into the airport, said, "It's high-stakes work and there's very little room for error."
• 

  (#4) Princess Juliana International Airport

  • Saint Martin (Island)

  The runway at Princess Juliana Airport in the Caribbean island of St. Martin is less than half the length of the average international airport runway. However, because St. Martin is such a popular tourist destination, major aircraft regularly fly into Princess Juliana.

  Aircraft cruise into the airport directly above crowded Maho Beach. However, the trickiest part of the flight occurs immediately before landing, when an airplane must circle back and around over the beach to avoid the mountains.
• 

  (#5) Courchevel Airport

  • Courchevel

  Courchevel Airport is located in the Alps of France. It features one of the shortest runways in the world, spanning about 1,722 feet long. The uphill landing strip runs at a gradient measuring 18.5% to slow an aircraft down before it runs out of landing strip. As if that's not risky enough, specially certified pilots also have to navigate their way through valleys and ski slopes before landing.

  The adrenaline-inducing Courchevel Airport is aptly featured in the 1997 James Bond movie, Tomorrow Never Dies.
• 

  (#6) Narsarsuaq Airport

  • Nuuk, Greenland

  Landing at Narsarsuaq Airport in Greenland is so perilous that only pilots who have full knowledge of the weather patterns and local terrain are allowed to land there. A pilot must fly up a fjord on their runway approach and navigate through heavy winds, turbulence, and often snowy or icy weather.

  The conditions are so difficult that nighttime takeoffs and landings are not allowed at Narsarsuaq.
• 

  (#7) In Antarctica, Runways Are Made Out Of Ice

  The sea ice runways in Antarctica are made entirely out of ice. Pilots must take great caution to avoid a heavy landing or else they risk sinking into the ice. Additionally, in Antarctica, the winter season brings 24 hours of darkness. When factoring in wind conditions and snow, a pilot sometimes has to do a blind landing on a slippery surface.

  "When winds get to be 20 or 30 mph, it creates so much blowing snow that you can't see the runway," Air National Guard Colonel Ronnie Smith said, after flying a dozen seasons's worth of risky landings. "It doesn't take much to create a white-out."
• 

  (#8) Gustaf III Airport

  • France, Saint Barthélemy

  Gustaf III in St. Barts ranks as the third most treacherous airport in the world. Pilots have to navigate their way through a sharp descent over a mountain, often with heavy winds, and be able to land on a runway that is only 2,132 feet long - compare this to the average 18,044-foot runway at international airports. 

  The beach at the end of the runway is a popular destination for celebrity travelers, which only spotlights the risk of airplane landings there.
• 

  (#9) Gibraltar International Airport

  • Gibraltar, United Kingdom, with Dependencies and Territories

  Imagine having to close down a major four-lane road every time an airplane has to take off or land. Tis is exactly the case at Gibraltar International Airport - located in a small British enclave at the tip of southern Spain - where traffic gets stopped on Winston Churchill Avenue for about 10 minutes when planes take off and land.

  Thankfully for locals, the number of flights at Gibraltar remains relatively low.
• 

  (#10) Sandane Airport, Anda

  • Anda, Norway

  Sandane Airport in Norway is nestled on a peninsula between two fjords - Nordfjorden and Gloppefjorden - and its asphalt runway measures just over 3,000 feet long. The location of the airport makes the landing area extremely narrow. 

  Adding to the degree of perilousness are the heavy winds and turbulence.
• 

  (#11) Madeira Airport

  • Funchal, Portugal

  Madeira Airport in the autonomous Portugal region - situated between the Atlantic and mountains - is considered one of the most terrifying places in the world to land an airplane. It is so difficult to land there that pilots need special training. Skilled aviators have to deal with high winds, turbulence, and an extremely short runway - and this is after it underwent multiple extensions.

  One of these runway extensions came in 1977 after a Boeing 727 "plunged off the end of the runway," according to the Daily Mail.
• 

  (#12) Barra Airport

  • Outer Hebrides, United Kingdom

  Barra Airport in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, is absolutely one of a kind. It is the only airport in the entire world that uses a beach as its runway - which also happens to disappear twice a day when Tràigh Mhòr gets washed out by high tide.

  Barra beat out several popular tropical destinations as the "most scenic" airport in the world.
• 

  (#13) Nantucket Memorial Airport

  • Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States of America

  The island of Nantucket in Massachusetts is nicknamed the "Grey Lady" because fog famously engulfs the whole island, often in a matter of minutes. It is clear that heavy fog does not make for a safe flying condition.

  Planes often cannot land or take off from Nantucket Memorial Airport, which frequently results in canceled or delayed flights.

New Random Displays    Display All By Ranking