So I’ve been thinking. What is the worst airport layout you’ve ever seen flying into? What makes it your most hated or most annoying airport to fly into?
For me it’s going to be, Chicago O’Hare. Both Paris Airports (CBD and ORY) and Frankfurt. All for the stupidly insanity that is their taxiways that cross everywhere that look like they grabbed a pencil and just drew lines in random directions and guessed how to link them all tighter to make a mess of taxiways.
Without ATC guidance I struggle to find my way around. Often times I’ll miss my exit or take the wrong taxiway and have to do a massive circle back around or take a longer route back to where I was trying to go to.
I understand there is always a thought process into designing airports for most efficiency and to accommodate all sizes of planes but to me, it just looks like a mess of taxiways going everywhere cause of new expansions and the weirdly shaped land they use, and also the many runways that are planed in weird spots or are very far from the main terminals for no apparent reason other than to add a new runway and have to find a way to link that into the existing infrastructure
Honestly, I don’t find it the worst, bit rather tedious for me. A prime example of having long taxi times would be Narita, O’Hare and potentially Brisbane.
For new users and inexperienced pilots, I would say MMMX. It’s surrounded by mountains, a high-elevation airport, which means your GS is higher… the approach isn’t straight-in but includes a turn about 6 miles before… so the approach can be somewhat unstable. Not everyone can make a good landing at that airport.
Yeah. That last turn is insane too, you’re low to the ground, you’re most likely at your final landing speed and you can’t see the airport till the last second. So you really do have to trust the ATC to know what they’re doing to get you down
That’s another problem right there, not so many ATC are familiar with the Mexico Valley area; several people and I have had a CFIT happen to us . Only a few know how to work radar in that area, mainly because of the mountainous terrain and the high elevation.
It’s a challenge for everyone, but that makes it a pretty cool airport
And the other thing is that the approach they use is the mountain side. So it’s tricky for all of us, pilots and ATC trying to not crash into a mountain and obey ATC.
I’ve noticed that it’s always landing from the west side and never from the east.
Top 3 which comes to no surprise to anyone is Lukla for its high altitude and low speed sort of approch, Paro for its last minute s turn and finally St Barthelemy RWY 10 approach and landing more or less due to the runway being seen through the terrain which makes it harder to judge the hills as the hills dont blank out the rwy ect
I would say HAAB can be quite tricky with the taxi paths, especially if it’s busy. Other major airports (I wouldn’t say it’s bad, but difficult) that would fit in this category will be Kathmandu (VNKT) and Paro (VQPR). Neither airport has an ILS approach, and you have to maneuver through some mountains, but you need to try it at least once in your life!
Yes, I have already flown to almost all airports with a difficult approach. I would also like to recommend Skardu, Leh, Lhasa, Queenstown (too famous) or Cusco
. Only a few know how to work radar in that area, mainly because of the mountainous terrain and the high elevation.