For enthusiasts

Legendary Airports & Routes

Runways that vanish at high tide, approaches flown at rooftop height, flights shorter than their safety briefing. The places and routes every aviation fan wants to see, and the real reasons they work the way they do.

Extraordinary airports

Kai Tak: The Checkerboard Approach

A 47° turn over Kowloon rooftops, flown by 747s every few minutes until 1998.

Paro: The Airport Only a Few Dozen Pilots May Fly Into

A Himalayan valley, daylight only, no instrument approach to lean on.

Barra: The Runway the Tide Washes Away

Scheduled flights land on a cockle beach, timed around the sea.

Nepal’s Extreme Mountain Airports

Lukla’s 527m runway slopes uphill into a mountain. And it isn’t the only one.

Antarctica’s Blue-Ice Runways

How an Airbus A340 landed on a glacier, on ordinary wheels.

Saba: The Shortest Commercial Runway

400m on a headland, with cliffs on three sides.

Madeira: The Runway Built on Stilts

180 columns, 70m tall, holding a runway over the shore.

Gibraltar: The Road Across the Runway

The main road to Spain crossed the runway, until 2023.

Courchevel: The Ski-Jump Runway

An 18.6% slope, uphill landings and no go-around.

Legacy aircraft

Where You Can Still Fly Legacy Aircraft

The 747, A340, 757, 717, Il-96 and more — plus the 727s and DC-10s you can only watch.

Remarkable routes

The Kangaroo Route

Sydney to London: from four days in 1947 to nonstop in 2027.

The World’s Shortest Flight

Westray to Papa Westray: 1.7 miles, record time 53 seconds.

United’s Island Hopper

Six stops across the Pacific, with its own mechanic on board.

Fifth Freedom Flights Explained

Why Singapore Airlines flies New York to Frankfurt.