35 Airports Pilots Would Rather Never Land In If They Could Choose

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.