Most of us would happily acknowledge that being a pilot is no easy task. Besides a massive responsibility, they have to be vigilant and accurate while guiding a massive metal bird into a populated airspace. And, unfortunately, not all airports are created equal.
Someone asked, “As an airline pilot, which airport would you choose never to land at again if you could help it?” People with flying experience shared the airstrips, airports, and even cities they absolutely hated flying into. So get comfortable, if you are on a flight, look out for your destination here, upvote your favorites, and share your thoughts in the comments section below.
#1
Paro in Bhutan can accept twin engine jets, but only seven pilots in the world are certified to make the complex approach between the mountains.
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78points
#2
Not a pilot, but as a passenger, Lukla in Nepal was, as my dad says in the video, “seriously interesting”. The runway has a 12% gradient (which is a lot more than it sounds!) with a sheer drop at the bottom and a rock face at the top. I was sitting next to my dad in the front row of the Twin Otter. Luckily I hadn’t researched this airport’s legendary reputation before the trip.
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67points
#3
La Guardia. Most dangerous airport in the world. With the runway configuration and the Port Authorities’ ongoing desire to stuff 10 pounds into a 5 pound bag, it is inherently dangerous when landings are interspersed with takeoffs on the crossing runway. I had a near miss in the early 90s and it left me angry and disillusioned with the process when the tower personnel defended their mistakes.
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64points
While it’s not the first one to pop up here, Tribhuvan International Airport, in Kathmandu, Nepal, is widely considered one of the most dangerous in the world. Its location, in the literal Himalayan mountains, means that approaches are difficult, weather is unpredictable and the runway doesn’t have a lot of space.
Even worse, unlike a water-based approach, where even a crash isn’t the end of the world, overshooting the runway at Kathmandu might mean going right into the face of a cliff. It perhaps doesn’t appear that much in this list, as only pilots who have passed courses on a simulator are even allowed to land.
#4
USS Lexington - not only is it an aircraft carrier that move, pitches, rolls, heaves, has winds coming around the island causing a cross wind, and wind falling off the back end (burble) causing a suck down just before landing - it is SMALL even in aircraft carrier standards. And with hydraulic cats that kick your butt, literally.
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61points
#5
Here’s a situation I don’t want to repeat. I was flying into Zaragoza Air Base on a military plane, a C-21. I’d been sitting in the jump seat chatting on intercom with the pilot the whole flight. He was a neighbor back at our base.
Notice there are parallel runways. We always landed on the Northern one, the military Air Base side. The Southern one was a civilian commercial airport.
We’re set up for the landing with the co-pilot doing the landing. We’re coming from screen left so we see the wrong runway first. I’m looking out the windshield and notice we’re lined up for the wrong one.
I ask, “Which runway are we landing?”
Co-pilot responds, “12”.
I ask, “12 Right or 12 Left?”
At that moment we all see a large commercial plane on take-off roll heading our way on the runway we’re set to land on.
Pilot says “My Plane”, flips some switches, Yells to the guys in the back, “Hold on back there!”, and puts the C-21 into max power / max climb. I didn’t even know that plane could climb that fast. We complete a missed approach /go around and the pilot lands us on the correct runway with a co-pilot still white as a ghost.
Needless to say, I didn’t buy a beer for that whole mission; they were all on the co-pilot’s tab.
Notice there are parallel runways. We always landed on the Northern one, the military Air Base side. The Southern one was a civilian commercial airport.
We’re set up for the landing with the co-pilot doing the landing. We’re coming from screen left so we see the wrong runway first. I’m looking out the windshield and notice we’re lined up for the wrong one.
I ask, “Which runway are we landing?”
Co-pilot responds, “12”.
I ask, “12 Right or 12 Left?”
At that moment we all see a large commercial plane on take-off roll heading our way on the runway we’re set to land on.
Pilot says “My Plane”, flips some switches, Yells to the guys in the back, “Hold on back there!”, and puts the C-21 into max power / max climb. I didn’t even know that plane could climb that fast. We complete a missed approach /go around and the pilot lands us on the correct runway with a co-pilot still white as a ghost.
Needless to say, I didn’t buy a beer for that whole mission; they were all on the co-pilot’s tab.
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49points
#6
THE most difficult airport to fly in and out of is the Tenzing-Hillary airport in Lukla, Nepal. On one end is a cliff; on the other is a mountain wall. On the way, you are flying between mountains, and there are often clouds.
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49points
It doesn’t help that the runway does not have an instrument landing system, which makes landing, already one of the more difficult parts of any pilot's job, just that little bit harder. Winters in Nepal tend to have a lot of fog, so sometimes the pilot will have neither visibility nor all the instruments they might need to actually do their job.
#7
Gibraltar. To stay out of Spanish airspace, you have to fly very tight around the rock. If the wind is blowing, it is incredibly turbulent... Scary.
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46points
#8
Practically almost any airport near LAX. The problem is not landing, but leaving. John Wayne is the worst. You have to climb out steeply then pull your power back and almost level off, all the while staying in a very narrow departure corridor. Frankly, if you buy a house near an airport you should expect to hear airplanes. They didn't doze down a bunch of homes to put the airport in. It was there first.
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42points
#9
Aspen (ASE) airport. Everything about it is frustrating. The approach requires going out of your way, and if you miss the approach it takes a bit of time to re-position for another try. Once on the ground, dealing with parking and the ground staff is frustrating, too. But, maybe that part has changed… I haven’t been to ASE in a few years. There is no such thing as landing at an unsafe airport… unless you’re a pilot with exceedingly poor judgement. If it’s truly unsafe, then you don’t land there. However, iffy procedures and trying to cram an airplane that doesn’t fit into the airport can certainly make it dangerous.
42points
Of course, landing on an aircraft carrier is still, on the whole, probably a lot harder. Yes, you might miss the runway, and yes, you might end up in the ocean. But at least water is a bit “softer” than a cliff face and there is an entire vessel nearby that will attempt a rescue. Plus, the sorts of planes that land on aircraft carriers tend to not have hundreds of passengers, so there isn’t that responsibility hovering over the pilot.
#10
I’m always alert when we operate at DCA, National Airport in Washington DC. The river visual approach isn’t particularly dangerous but any deviation gets you into restricted airspace and the consequences are embarrassing and newsworthy. I always pay a lot of attention there.
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41points
#11
I am not a pilot but as a long standing airline employee, I cannot believe anyone has yet to mention CR7 International Airport in Funchal, (FNC) Madeira. I visited that gorgeous paradise once. Love, love the island of Madeira, but my first experience landing there happened on rainy, foggy, mid February day in 1989 when the single runway was much shorter, less wide than it currently is. On windy days (which are most days) the aircrafts ride the currents like goshawks, balancing left and right, at times barely avoiding slamming against the flank of the mountain, or on the runway if low enough. Do this on a windy, gray, foggy day, or worst still at night, and it can be a real nightmare. With little or nill visibility, if you overshoot the runway or get hit by a downward wind spiral, you are toast. The famous crosswinds of Madeira can kill an aircraft and even on a good day, FNC can get any stone assed pilot s**ting bricks on 1st landing attempt, usually aborted.
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40points
#12
Well, the Lake Tahoe Airport is pretty bad. I would never land there because there is a much safer Airport not far away which is called Douglas County Airport. Flying into Lake Tahoe is like flying into a toilet bowl. Flying out of Lake Tahoe it's like flying out of a toilet bowl. However, there may be some Pilots who like the challenge of difficult airports.
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36points
Many of the airports on this list are islands. Generally, this means an approach over water and a short runway. After all, islands, by definition, tend to not exactly have the most space in the world. This means very little room for error in both takeoff and landing, which are, as stated, generally the most risky and difficult parts of flying. So perhaps forget that next time you are traveling.
#13
As an old (85 now) private pilot, I found both landing and taking off at the Catalina airport on Catalina Island both challenging and fun.The runway is atop a plateau, so your approach is over the water. While you are very high over the water you are much lower relative to the airport runway. Then when you take off, the runway is humped in the middle. Sitting at the end of the runway, it looks like it ends a few hundred feet in front of you due to the bow, but as you accelerate more and more runway appears as you get neat the top of the hump. You have to trust your chart for the runway length as it’s not visible from the end of the runway.
36points
#14
Juneau, Alaska is pretty scary. There’s this big honkin’ mountain at the end of the runway. You land going one way and fly out going the other.
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36points
#15
Innsbruck, Austria, is in a mountain valley. It isn’t serviced by very large aircraft, but it scares the buggery out of me.
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35points
The other, perhaps less common, category of airport on this list is one over very restricted airspace. Some list Washington DC as a great example of that, but at least one can assume the US might not be too trigger-happy. Others have stated that landing in Berlin during the Cold War was its own “special” nightmare, as it meant flying over East German airspace and hoping you don’t nudge the controls the wrong way.
#16
Of all the major airports that have existed to date, there has to be one right answer: Kai Tak Airport, specifically Runway 13, in Hong Kong.
I have had too many pilot friends and friends and family mentioning the apparent nightmare landing in that airport used to be.
It was apparently so difficult to land in that airport that as a pilot you needed to have a special permit to authorise you to even make the journey... and accidents still kept happening.
The reason why it was so hard was basically because of the airport's surrounding terrain. A short heads up to architects of the future - please don't build your airport in the middle of a densely-populated city centre surrounded by mountains. It is generally not a good idea. That said, Hong Kong grew extremely quickly, so it was entirely possible that the original designers of Kai Tak Airport did not envision such rapid urban growth.
I have had too many pilot friends and friends and family mentioning the apparent nightmare landing in that airport used to be.
It was apparently so difficult to land in that airport that as a pilot you needed to have a special permit to authorise you to even make the journey... and accidents still kept happening.
The reason why it was so hard was basically because of the airport's surrounding terrain. A short heads up to architects of the future - please don't build your airport in the middle of a densely-populated city centre surrounded by mountains. It is generally not a good idea. That said, Hong Kong grew extremely quickly, so it was entirely possible that the original designers of Kai Tak Airport did not envision such rapid urban growth.
33points
#17
Alton Bay in January/February. It’s the only FAA authorized ice-runway in the lower 48 states. You’re landing on a frozen lake and trying to steer and slow to a stop in an airplane, which is already difficult to maneuver on the ground, let alone adding in the complexities of doing it on ice.
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32points
#18
Have you guys ever heard of Santos Dumont Airport in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) or Congonhas Airport in São Paulo (Brazil)? Not a pilot but I HATE those places. Landings and take-offs are just terrifying. In São Paulo you can actually see people in their couches watching TV inside the apartments of tall buildings that surrounds the airport. In Rio, one mistake and your airplane will take a swim like the pic below (and you can stay at the very end of the 2 runaways while aircrafts come and go… that’s amazing)
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31points
#19
Skiathos in Greece. It's a short runway with nothing but the Aegean at both ends and hills on both sides. And it's inclined, although slightly.
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31points
#20
My least favorite is Narita’s New Tokyo International Airport. Not because of terrain, or runway lengths, but because of the frequent, dangerous, unstable 'wind events.' Winds of 50–80+ knots suddenly come out of nowhere, and they can wreak havoc with landing aircraft. Diverts to nearby airports happen often, because of dangerous wind conditions.
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30points