In determining the smallest airports in the world, various factors have been used to assess the sizes of airports. The two most common criteria are the physical size of the airport, length or runways, number of terminals, number of destinations it serves, and the number of passengers that use the airport.
Smallest Airports in the World
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While not widely recognized as the smallest airport in the world, Simko Field Airport in Idaho has the shortest runway of just 122 meters, smaller than the size of an aircraft carrier. Juancho Yrausquin Airport on the island of Saba is the world’s recognized smallest commercial airport with a 400-meter runway almost the size of an average aircraft carrier with only 4 airlines.
10 Smallest Airports in the World
Juancho Yrausquin Airport
Top on this list of the world’s smallest airports is Juancho Yrausquin Airport on the island of Saba in the Caribbean Sea. This airport has a runway that is only 400 meters (1,312 feet) long!
The airport is off-limits to jet traffic; only regional aircraft with special permission from the Netherlands Antilles’ Civil Aviation Authority are permitted to land there.
Only 4 airlines fly to this airport:
In 2021, it had a traffic of just 15,000 passangers.
See this airport’s wikipedia page here
2. Barra Airport – (IATA: BRR, ICAO: EGPR)
This Scottish airport is located on the Isles of Barra and has a runway that is only 1,399 feet (426 meters) long. The beach beside the runway is actually used as an airstrip!
Only 2 airlines fly to this airport:
- Loganair
- Hebridean Air Services
In 2021, it had traffic of just 10,000 passengers.
Read more about Bara airport here.
3. Morgantown Municipal Airport- (IATA: MGW, ICAO: KMGW)
This airport is located in West Virginia, United States and has a runway that is only 1,829 feet (557 meters). It covers 494 acres (200 ha) which is significantly smaller than other airports such as O’Hare which cover 7,600 acres.
Southern Airways Express is the only airline out of the airport.
4.Tenzing-Hillary Airport– (IATA: LUA, ICAO: VNLK)
This airport is located in Lukla, Nepal and has a runway that is only 1,729 feet (527 meters). It is often referred to as the most dangerous airport in the world because of its location in the Himalayas. The airport is situated at an elevation of 9,334 feet (2,845 meters) and has a 12% grade which makes it difficult for landing.
Only 3 airlines fly to this airport:
In 2018, this airport served about 130,000 passengers as shown in the graph below;
5.Moshoeshoe I International Airport
– (IATA: MSU, ICAO: FXMM)
This airport is located in Maseru, Lesotho and has a runway that is only 1,981 feet (604 meters). The airport mainly serves domestic destinations but there are plans to make it an international airport.
Airlines that fly to this airport are:
- South African Airways
- Airlink
As of 2021, the traffic was not available.
6.Luang Prabang International Airport- (IATA: LPQ, ICAO: VLLB)
This airport is located in Luang Prabang, Laos and has a runway that is only 2,500 feet(760 meters). It is the country’s busiest airport handling about 1.4 million passengers in 2019.
Airlines that fly to this airport are:
- Lao Airlines
- Vietnam Airlines
7.Dawson Community Airport- (IATA: GDV, ICAO: KGDV)
The Dawson City, Yukon Airport covers 431 acres (167 hectares) and has an elevation of 2,458 feet. It contains two asphalt runways: one measuing 5,704 by 100 feet (1,739 x 30 m) and another measuing 3,002 by 60 feet (915 x 18 m).
8.Gustaf III Airport- (IATA: SBH, ICAO: TFFJ)
Gustaf III Airport is located on the Caribbean island of Saint Barthélemy and has a runway that is only 2,119 feet (645 meters). The airport has been nicknamed “St. Barths Beach Airport” or “St. Jean Beach Airport” because the runway is right next to the beach!
Airlines that fly to this airport are:
- Winair
- Tradewind Aviation
In 2020, it served a decent number of passengers about 140,000 as shown below;
9.Svalbard Airport (IATA: LYR, ICAO: ENSB)
This airport is located in Svalbard, Norway and has a runway that is only 8,146 feet (2,487 meters). It is the world’s northernmost airport and serves as the main gateway to Svalbard.
Airlines that fly to this airport are:
- Norwegian Air Shuttle
- SAS Braathen
In 2020, it had traffic of about 80,000 passengers as shown in the graph below;
My name is Alex Mutuma and I founded this blog, Airport LLC as a way to document and engage with clients in my travel consulting business. Airportllc.com is the only source of over 2,000 fun things flyers could do during layovers.
Over the past 7 years, I have designed and planned tour packages for hundreds of clients and have recently focussed on the mission of changing boring layovers to excellent mini-vacations by giving you the best suggestions on must-do activities when flying over different airports.
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This is only recommended for flyers with long layovers of over 5 hours. If your layover is 3+ hours, you can still reach out but we cannot guarantee the ideal package that will change your layovers to mini-vacations. I only support clients flying through US airports and a select number of cities across the world.
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Name: Alex Mutuma
Profession: A professional travel consultant with a focus on airport activities to do during layovers
Email: Alex@airportllc.com
Phone: +1 945 348 889
Website: airportllc.com
Location: 322 Main Packway Street, Boston, US
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