Bonus points for a short description, a traveller tip or a little known secret.

 

I'll go first with London Heathrow, LHR.

 

Secret: There is a VIP entrance to Terminal 5 located on Windsor Close. If you get past security, there is a gentleman wearing a bowler hat waiting to greet you.

Tenerife North Airport (IATA: TFN, ICAO: GCXO), formerly Los Rodeos Airport

Tenerife North Airport was the scene of the Tenerife airport disaster, the deadliest accident in aviation history to date.

 

That airport is all the time in the clouds. I landed there some time after above described disaster. After the landing in the clouds I could see the two burned out airplanes - long time after that disaster.

 

Conclusion: Avoid!

Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. AMS. built on the bottom of a lake, 4 meters below sea level. 

San Francisco/SFO

City by the bay.

SZB: Sultan Abul Aziz Shah Airport.  Runway 33 is an OK destination for a couple of pints, if you don't mind cycling in the traffic.  The new Skypark station is within walking distance, if you are reasonably fit.  

Zürich Kloten

ZRH

 

secret: their controllers company were responsible for the mid-air collision of a DHL cargo with a Russian passenger plane full of children. The scumbags tried to blame it on the Russian pilots. The controller was then murdered by a grieving parent, but the controller himself was mostly innocent. The managers of the company, responsible for the slaughter, got off lightly.

 

secret 2: a 20 minute taxi ride into the city will set you back 70-80 USD.

12 hours ago, manarak said:

Zürich Kloten

ZRH

 

secret: their controllers company were responsible for the mid-air collision of a DHL cargo with a Russian passenger plane full of children. The scumbags tried to blame it on the Russian pilots. The controller was then murdered by a grieving parent, but the controller himself was mostly innocent. The managers of the company, responsible for the slaughter, got off lightly.

 

secret 2: a 20 minute taxi ride into the city will set you back 70-80 USD.

Kloten in Dutch translates as testicles...

Mumbai

BOM (Bombay)

An airport (and city) that looks best as you climb out on departure, spent rather too long there working on the metro. Slumdog Millionaire makes it look good ?

 

Chennai

MAA (Madras)

India by the sea, there's a metro there too.

 

Bengaluru

BLR (Bangalore)

The best Indian city I had the pleasure of working in, green, fairly cool, cosmopolitan. Oddly enough, they have a metro as well.

Nogliki, NGK, an oil town on the north east coast of Sakhalin Island, Russia, rough as the proverbial badger's backside.

 

Trivia #1 - Before the airport was torn down and rebuilt around 2006, the toilet was an old wooden outhouse with a cresent moon on the door.

Trivia #2 - Exxon completely rebuilt the terminal and replaced the sand runway with a proper tarmac one, plus added some fancy navigation system that was better than that of the airport in the regional capital, Yuzhno (UUS). So incensed were the Yuzhno bosses that their hick cousins had a better airport, they successfully lobbied Moscow to pull the fixed wing license for Nogliki for at least a year after completion.

Myeik Airport - MGZ, ICAO: VYME (for the pilots).  Gateway to the Mergui Archipelago in southern Myanmar

Landed back here a few days ago, military training base for the Myanmar Air Force on one side, old simple domestic terminal on the other.
Hasn't changed since I first landed here in early 1999. Baggage comes out on a trolley some time after arrival.

 

But!  Was recently changed to allow international flights, and for a few months earlier this year they had a twice weekly flight from Don Mueang with a little known airline called New Gen Airways.  Seems to have stopped for rainy season, but it was the first international flight schedule allowed here...ever?

On 6/26/2018 at 2:24 PM, Gulfsailor said:

Kloten in Dutch translates as testicles...

It's "Klöten" in German

USH

 

Malvinas Argentinas Ushuaia International Airport located on the island or Tierra del Fuego is the southernmost international airport in the world.

 

 

Paro International Airport, Bhutan (PBH). Because of the surrounding terrain including peaks as high as 18,000 feet, only a select number of pilots are certified to land at the airport.

Many people wanting to travel to London in this forum use LDN as an abbreviation.Should they ever buy a ticket there on that assumption, they will end up at Lamidanda in Nepal. A little dirt strip by a village in a mountain valley.

Careful when flying from San Jose California SJC to San Jose Costa Rica SJO. 

 

 

 

Leeds/Bradford Airport LBA

The drop off area is £3 payable at the gate upon leaving, if you are seen to be using this area for picking up you will be charged £103 !!
This has come into force recently and the airport is making a killing !!

Princess Juliana International Airport, Sint Maarten in the Dutch Caribbean Island/SXM

 

Crazy plane spotters taking uncalculated risks and some playing to get deliberately getting blown by the takeoff jet blasts from planes in this airport that fully adjoins a public beach. One of the craziest airports in the world IMHO.

 

Secret: .....you can enjoy great Sex on the Beach !! ......(from a bar not far selling this lovely cocktail?)

 

(the photo is a random internet stock photo just to get an idea)

Sint Maarten is also the location of the border between France and the Netherlands.. That might come in handy on quiz night.

GRU - São Paulo Internacional Airport

Proud to have the best baggage handlers in the business.........................best at stealing your property that is !! ( allegedly ! )

Malé/Velana International Airport, (MLE) in the Maldives.

 

There are 5 runways, of which only one is on dry land (4 runways for sea planes).

 

A whole 2 meters above sea level.

8 hours ago, blackcab said:

Malé/Velana International Airport, (MLE) in the Maldives.

 

There are 5 runways, of which only one is on dry land (4 runways for sea planes).

 

A whole 2 meters above sea level.

And it's build on rubbish. I landed there in 1985. The runway island was constructed near the capital city (that natural island is about 1sqkm) on top of a rubbish dump. If it is 2m above sea level that makes it the highest point in the Maldives.