Airports are large airfields with a variety of facilities for air travel. Planes are parked, landed, and repaired, among other things, in airports. 

Flights that travel from one part of the country to another are known as domestic flights. Flights that travel from one country to another are known as international flights. Depending on the size of the facility, airports often have one or more runways, terminals, taxiways, control power centres, parking spaces, and other places for servicing aircraft and people.

We have compiled some information that you might find interesting regarding different types of airports. 

History of Airports

• The College Park Airport in Maryland, USA, is the world’s oldest continually operating airport. Hamburg Airport in Hamburg, Germany, is the world’s second-oldest operating commercial airport.
• Wilbur Wright, the older of the Wright Brothers, created the College Park Airport in 1909. Even the National Register of Historic Places has listed the airport. The airport only services general aviation traffic and has a single runway 2,600 feet long (792.5 metres) and 60 feet wide (18.3 metres).
• Beijing Nanyuan Airport in Beijing, China, opened in 1904 and was enlarged in 1907 to accommodate airships. The airport first opened its doors in 1910 and closed in September of this year. 
• Hamburg Airport is the second-oldest commercial airport in operation, having opened in 1911. 13 million travellers fly from Hamburg Airport to over 60 destinations on 115 international and domestic carriers every year.
• Pearson Field Airport is a working airfield in Vancouver, Washington, United States. It was built in 1905 to accommodate planes and in 1911 to handle airships, but it wasn’t until later that it was designated as an official airfield.

Busiest Airports

An Airport’s busyness is usually calculated by measuring the number of footfalls during a whole year.

• Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Beijing Capital International Airport, London Heathrow, Dubai International Airport etc., are currently the world’s busiest airports. However, the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport just became the busiest airport in 2020, even though many airports were largely unaffected by the pandemic.
• The Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, apart from being the largest airport in the world, has been recognised as one of the world’s busiest passenger airports since its first recognition came in 1998. Every year, millions of travellers pass through the airport’s five runways. It is not just Atlanta’s most significant structure and employer, but it is also only a two-hour flight away from 80 per cent of the country’s business population.
• Beijing Capital International Airport has recently become one of the world’s busiest airports. It can also be credited with being the only airport in the Pacific-Asian region with three runways, three terminals, and two towers, all running simultaneously to transport crores of passengers each year.
• Dubai International Airport is the world’s busiest airport with only 2 runaways.

The largest airport in the world

• The Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, located in the United States, has been the largest airport in the world since 1998. It was recorded that almost one hundred and four million passengers traversed the airport in 2017. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta is still the singular airport to exceed the one hundred million passenger threshold. 
• Beijing Capital International, the second-largest airport in the world, hosts a higher number of people than Dubai’s International airport (96 million as opposed to 88 million at Dubai airport).

Best airport in the world

• Changi Airport in Singapore is known for its incredible cleanliness, helpful staff, and organisation’s well-planned design for the terminal. There are also a plethora of options to shop, a wide range of cuisines to choose from, and, to top it all off, don’t be surprised to find luxurious gyms and swimming pools, just the pinnacle of luxury.
• Apart from that, Zurich and Istanbul-Atatürk airports are also at the top of the list, providing similar ambience.

The smallest airport in the world

• The airport located on the Scottish island of Barra is the only airport with only one carrier (Flybe). It’s only open for limited hours a day, from Monday to Friday. Interestingly, the runway is built of sand, which is unique to this airport, allowing for some flexibility in arrival timings, as every landing is dependent on the tide.
• The Saba Airport is also located on Caribbean islands and has marked an even better size record. The world’s officially shortest runway, measuring just 400 metres, is located here.

The most dangerous airport in the world

• Princess Juliana International Airport in St. Maarten is the airport that is closest to the shore such that people there can view planes directly from above because it’s barely ten to twenty metres.
• The Ioannis Kapodistrias airport in Corfu, Greece, is troublesome as the main road passes through the airport and creates a massive safety hazard. However, for safety reasons, this road is closed before each takeoff for safety reasons, so the danger isn’t as great as it is on St. Maarten.

Most spectacular airports in the world

• The Dabba-Yardang Airport in China’s Sichuan province opened in 2013, and at a height of nearly 4,400 metres, it is the world’s highest airport. Passengers are cautioned. However, the high altitude might make you feel dizzy and cause other altitude sickness symptoms.
• Likewise, the architectural design of both Wellington Airport’s “The Rock” terminal and Arctic Circle Airport in Norway is worth seeing.
• Both airports have an architecture that perfectly adapts to their environment, with “The Rock” terminal’s glass design weaving its way around its hilly topography. The Arctic Circle Airport’s design mimics the snow-covered high peaks surrounding it.

Fun facts about airports

Here are a few fun facts about airports we think you have never known of –

• As per reports from FlightAware, there are an average of 9,728 planes in the air at any given moment, carrying 1,270,406 people. This places the sky ahead of Cyprus, Fiji, and many other countries in terms of population.
• San Francisco International Airport recruits a therapy pig to assist travellers with travel stress. Lilou is her name, and she offers massage therapy to pilots, crew members, and airport personnel.
• Some years back, a Houston airport received a lot of complaints from passengers stating that they spent “too much” time waiting for their baggage. The airport staff decided to shift the arrival gates away from the main terminal and conveyor belts to the outermost carousel to tackle this issue. For this reason, passengers were made to walk a little further to receive their baggage, and complaints were nearly non-existent.
• The Hong Kong International airport has a nine-hole golf course adjacent to Terminal 2 and a 350-seat IMAX theatre that shows both conventional and 3D films. 
• If you are in Singapore airport and want to do something more relaxing, go to the world’s first butterfly garden in an airport, which boasts over 1,000 tropical butterflies.
• Bird-strike prevention measures are provided at Montreal-Trudeau International Airport, Toronto Pearson International Airport, and many other air domes. Various raptors, such as bald eagles, hawks, and falcons, operate around the clock to persuade other birds to leave that region.

Conclusion

We have tried to provide you with a list of interesting and unusual facts about different airports worldwide. We hope you enjoyed reading them as much as we collected their information and wrote about them.