Surprising Airports

I am doing a top 10 here. Top 10 most surprsing airports. These are not the BEST AIRPORT's, just strange or weird ones. I will try and highlight what is unique about each of them. Some times, there is nothing. Most photos are taken from the website www.airliners.net which is a good place for aviation pictures.

10) Tied at 10th place are two airports. They similarities are unique (!?) Have a look !
Penticton Regional Airport, Penticton, British Columbia, Canada


Big Bear City, California,USA (Elevation 6740 ft)


9) Canary Island airports
The Canary Island was the location where the biggest aviation disaster occurred. A PanAm and a KLM 747 collided on the runway killing every one on-board. Some times known as the Tenerife disaster, this happened in the first airport below. The main cause was poor visibility. Although these pictures look pretty, both the airports are still dangerous for the same reason.

Los Rodeos Airport,Tenerife,Canary Islands

(Credit:http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=204605)

Reina Sofía Airport,Tenerife,Canary Islands

(Credit:http://images1.jetphotos.net/images/t/TFNRWY18SEP.jpg.23335.jpg8)


8) Diego Garcia, BIOT
Diego Garcia is a coral island - 11 sq mi (28 sq km). Indian Ocean's largest island of the Chagos Archipelago, 1500 km south of India - Part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, the island was leased (1970) to the United States and later developed as a joint U.S.-British naval base to guard the Persian Gulf oil routes and to counter increased Soviet military activities in S Asia and Africa - unfortunately I don't have much pictures. But it definitely is a surprising thing.

(Credit http://web.umr.edu/~rogersda/military_service/Diego%20Garcia.jpg)


(Credit http://www.ukotcf.org/images/photos/Chagos/3867-768/092.jpg)



7) Macau International Airport, Macau, China

Trust me , this is stranger then HOng Kong and Japan which also have island airports. The narrow bridge is pretty scary.

(Credits http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cd/Macau_International_Airport.jpg)





6) Davis-Monthan Air-force Base, Arizona, USA
This is not an airport. It's an airfield near Tucson Arizona. This is like a maintenance / storage / graveyard for planes. There are more than 5000 planes here. You can see this in Google maps satellite map. They allow tours to get upclose to the junk.


(Credits : Google Map)


(Credits : Wikipedia)


(Credits:http://www.ukexpert.co.uk/photopost/data/559/118Davis_Monthan_AFB.jpg)


(Credits:http://www.combatreform.com/a4skyhawksatdavismonthanafb.jpg)

5) Jiu-Zhai Airport, China
The altitude of this airport (JZH / ZUJZ) is 3447.7m/11311ft. It is one of the highest tableland airports in China also in the world. The airport has the extreme weather and the complex of nature obstacles make this one to be one of the most difficult airports to operate in the world.


4) Male International Airport, Male
This country relies a lot on tourism. I don't think they would want to use these photos though. Lovely place - yes, but definitely concerned with Tsunami and everything.





3) Kai Tak International Airport, Hong Kong (closed)
Almost every airline out there has had an incident in this place. Including . . . . Qantas - the only airline with no major accident. The main reason is the cross winds that tend to roll the planes. They closed this airport in 1998 and opened Chek Lap Kok which probably is th best airport in the word today.






2) Funchal / Madeira Santa Cruz, Portugal
This is a strange one. Notice the pillars that keep the run way up. Well - mountains one side, the sea on the other - it feel like landing in a poem.





1) Princess Juliana International Airport, St Maarten Island
Its a small island. There is no place for a proper runway. Other factors such as cross wing, head wind and tail wind were considered while making this. 747s that require maximum landing distance (about 6000ft) land here. Definitely - the most interesting airport that I've seen.




Leave a comment here if you think one of the others should be #1 .