Thanks to their unique topographies, high altitude, unpredictable weather or complex take-off and landing approach procedures, there are some airport runways in the world that challenge the skills of even the most seasoned pilots and often require years of local experience or specific training.

Of the more than 41,000 airports in operation across the world, a Scottish airport has been named as being home to one of the 10 ‘most extreme’ runways in a new poll.

The list, compiled by American science and technology magazine Wired, looked at the global landing strips “where getting a plane to take off or land is really a challenge” for airline pilots. 

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The runways also featured “extreme weather conditions, short or narrow airstrips or with particular topographical features, such as particularly steep mountains or valleys”.  

Barra Airport, situated in the wide shallow bay of Traigh Mhòr at the northern tip of the island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, came in at 10th place on the list. 

One of the world’s most distinctive airports thanks to its globally renowned beach runway - a ‘bucket list’ of aviation enthusiasts the world over - the airport provides lifeline services to Barra, while also being a popular visitor attraction. 

About Barra Airport, Wired wrote: “Located in the extreme Hebrides, the northernmost part of the islands off the coast of Scotland, where even the Vikings didn't like to sail, the airport of the Isle of Barra has a particularity that makes it quite unique. Its three short runways arranged in a triangle and delimited by permanent poles can only be used at low tide because, at high tide, they are completely submerged. Barra is in fact the only airport in the world whose runway is on the beach.”

 

 

The former Kai Tak airport in Hong Kong topped the list of the 10 ‘most extreme’ runways in the world, with Wired writing that, although it has been closed since 1998 “the "old" Hong Kong airport has been an unforgettable experience for all those who have used it”.

Gibraltar International Airport was named second for its “unique characteristics” in having an approach path that “passes by a gigantic fortress and a densely populated city, and ends overhanging the sea”.

Third place went to the runway at Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport on the Dutch Caribbean island of Saba, which is widely acknowledged to be the shortest commercial runway in the world.

Making up the top five are Princess Juliana International Airport on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin and Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport in Madeira.

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The runway at Princess Juliana International Airport made the list for its close proximity to the beach and road that goes around the island, with plane landings taking place “with a very rapid approach that skims the road and the arm of the beach with swimmers in bathing suits sunbathing”. 

Madeira Airport, which has earned the nickname of ‘the Kai Tak of Europe’ due to the runway being located on a plateau and ending abruptly overlooking the sea, makes the list for the “particular difficulty” faced by pilots in landing as a result of the Atlantic currents and winds the archipelago is exposed to.

In sixth and seventh place are the runways of Paro International Airport in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Nepal, the former widely known as the world's most dangerous airport, with less than two dozen pilots certified to make the manual by-daylight-only approach to the runway. 

The Ice Runway in the Antarctic, which is the principal runway for the U.S. Antarctic Program during the summer Antarctic field season, and Kansai International Airport in Japan, which is built on an artificial island about 25 miles south of central Osaka, were named in eighth and ninth position respectively.