Favourite and least favourite airports to land at.

[MedusaThrills]

What are yours?
I spoke to my friends dad who flies for thompson and he said his favourite is mexico and his least favourite to fly to is Salzburg in austria (if im not mistaken) He said that the planes have to fly in and out on the same runway and its all covered in mountains, very hard to recover if you have a bad final.


I am only a student pilot at the moment so have only flown in and out of redhill, england.

[Rainboe]

Chambery near Geneva is the same- one way in and same way out. Makes schedules very difficult with departure delays when arrivals are coming in. 5,000' mountains around, very steep approaches and difficult go-around procedures, and up to 1/3 of flights there have to divert for weather, usually to Lyons that doesn't want to and can't handle you at short-staffed weekends which are peak times for ski flights!

Favourites- the old Hong Kong RW13 IGS procedure, New York Canarsie 13L approach, and Mauritius (because you had a lovely stay coming up!). Bangkok, because you were tired, and what a great place! Mumbai ('Bombay', for the curry), Cape Town (for the great seafood and nice time), Gibraltar....incredible, Nice (when we used to come in over Cannes. The airport is infested with incredible totty), Los Angeles- exciting airport, nice city, Greek Islands airports- gorgeous scenery........it goes on.

[PAPI-74]

London City Airport is a monster.
Wind Shear on a daily basis as standard and mechanical turbulence from the buildings, speeding up as it comes in contact with the River Thames.
The airport also has best views of London having Big Ben and HP, The Eye, Dome, Canary Wharf, The Docks, etc.... in the circuit.
Yet another consideration is the Police helicopters hunting below you and trying to land on, what is essentially, an aircraft carrier. The TCAS gets busy too in the LTMA.
Oh and it is a steep approach at 5.5 deg, requiring a rate of descent is twice that od a normal approach, so judging the landing requires cat like reflexes or you either plant it on the deck or miss the landing zone; crosswinds having upto a 30 degree crab angle on a bad day and with a 40+ kt wind at 2000', you can bet the last 500' will give you windshear.

We need a pay rise !!!!

[bucket_and_spade]

Probably pretty tame compared with some responses here but runways with pronounced bumps in the middle or in the touchdown zone can lead to "arrivals" rather than landings :bored:

[RAT 5]

'Favourite to land at' could be the one where you have to use your skills and thus feel a satisfaction afterwards. Not too much skill that you feel threatened, but regs should not put you in such a spot. I don't count the post landing night stop party as included because I'm sure the questioner is thinking more along the piloting lines. As a result of this crteria I'd list:
Corfu, 17 after circle; Nice 23 after circle at night; Samos, Calvi 36 circle inside the mountain bowl; Innsbruk visual down the valley; Carcassonne 10 circle; Funcal; the list could go on because these are all lovely areas as well, and there are many islands around the world which offer wonderful enjoyable challenges.
As for un-favourite; all of the above with their frequent thuderstorms, cloud & rain at night; JFK for being such a mess on the ground(1995/6); many Scandanavian fields in winter snow storms (don't like slippery conditions); many African airfields becasue you're never quite sure if everyone knows what they are doing, or that all the equipment is going to work, and there is a very laise faire attitude which doesn't jive with the european discipline.

[Cloud1]

Yes Innsbruck can be a bit of a git to land at - not a pilot myself but have experienced the pilots view and how they land there.....

[leeds 65]

i think leeds is an awful bloody kip to be honest.christ the shears u get on final.the actual runway is awful too,hills ,short etc.

[xtypeman]

Alderney in a force 9 is interesting.............

[Mister Geezer]

Sumburgh can be a pain with eye watering wind speeds and a runway contaminated with fish.

[nebpor]

London City Airport is a monster.
Wind Shear on a daily basis as standard and mechanical turbulence from the buildings, speeding up as it comes in contact with the River Thames.
The airport also has best views of London having Big Ben and HP, The Eye, Dome, Canary Wharf, The Docks, etc.... in the circuit.
Yet another consideration is the Police helicopters hunting below you and trying to land on, what is essentially, an aircraft carrier. The TCAS gets busy too in the LTMA.
Oh and it is a steep approach at 5.5 deg, requiring a rate of descent is twice that od a normal approach, so judging the landing requires cat like reflexes or you either plant it on the deck or miss the landing zone; crosswinds having upto a 30 degree crab angle on a bad day and with a 40+ kt wind at 2000', you can bet the last 500' will give you windshear.

We need a pay rise !!!!


As a frequent passenger into LCY it's my favourite destination for all the reasons you mention above and I'm warmed to read about the experience from the front - it's a laugh for us passengers as well :E

[The Real Slim Shady]

Worst four : Belfast City -short runway which has lumps , speedbumps and a ramp just at rotate on 22. Turbulence, regardless of the wind direction.

Dublin because of the congestion on the ground and single runway operation.

Carcassone in winter as it is Cat 1 only.

Paris de Gaulle - only the French can make everything difficult. Protracted arrivals, delays on the ground taxiing in and out, dealing with French and English languages, many go arounds due to ATC.

Best 4: Skiathos - great views, great approach over the harbour, tricky runway.

Heathrow - so busy but so slick.

Milan Bergamo - spectacular views winter and summer and a wonderful place to night stop. Great arrival over the Alps or from the South and the ILS to 11 is fun.

Honolulu - wonderful views and a great stopover coming up.