Flying into and out of the most dangerous airport in the world...

Getting ready to board

Anyone with a fear of heights, weak stomach, or unaccustomed to flying without "The Herald Tribune", a perfectly manicured stewardess and a glass of champagne in hand stop reading and look away now... Go to your favourite travel browser and avoid any flight offered by Sita Airways, Yeti Airways, Agni Air, Tara Air, Nepal AirlinesGorkha Air and, perhaps more importantly, avoid Lukla Airport, the most dangerous airport in the world.

Mission Control

Lukla airport, renamed the Hillary Tensing Airport in 2008, has earned this esteemed ‘Number 1’ ranking (awarded by The History Channel programme, 'Most Extreme Airports') thanks to the the surrounding terrain, thin air, highly changeable weather, and the airports short sloping runway built on the steep incline of a hillside. Its length is 450 m and width 20m and the runway incline is a staggering 12%. Navigation is by sight and good ol'faithful gut instinct only so pre-boarding rituals generally include praying that the pilot is not returning from a late night out...

The airport is quite popular as Lukla is the place where most people start their trek to the Khumbu and Everest Base Camp. As a result, Lukla is Nepal's busiest domestic airport, and in the peak season the airlines operate over 50 flights a day through the facility.  The flight from Kathmandu to Lukla is about 45 minutes.

"Cut Here in Emergency" (?!!)

Safety Instructions

Our flights both into and out of Lukla airport has been character building to say the least. I don't think that I have ever been as conscious of the fact that I am flying rather unnaturally in a giant 'tin can' hundreds of metres above the earth. Perhaps I should have taken the hint before boarding the flight when I noticed the crude instructions 'Cut Here in case of Emergency' lettering painted onto the side of the plane with red nail varnish.

In Flight Services 

Air stewardesses generally limit contact with passengers to handing out G&Ts, mixed nuts and landing cards. A stewardess on a flight to and from Lukla has a more straight forward (but equally important) job description which consists primarily of handing out cotton wool to shove into your ears (noise control) and up your nose (minimise fumes). There is no drink and food trolley service but passengers are ceremoniously offered a choice of a mango or pineapple sweet by the gracious and smiling hostess.

Sweets and cotton wool service

Our guide Chris got more than he bargained for when he sat at the back of the plane next to the pretty stewardess who, as the bouncing tin can dropped through air pockets, grabbed his leg and, knuckles white with fear started muttering, 'ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod'.  Poor Chris disembarked from the flight pale, broken and in desperate need of a cup of tea (and something stronger) having seen his life flash before his eyes at least twice over the course of the 45 minute flight...

I think that I may have missed the 'safety demonstration' while I was unwrapping my sweet or while re-threading my frayed seat belt. Or perhaps I should have taken the cues from the various notes written on the inside shell of the plane with red magic marker in an array of languages which I could neither read nor understand...

Air traffic control

Landing in Lukla

The runway at Lukla certainly deserves a mention as the final 'piece de resistance' (if the plane construction, in-flight services and health and safety haven’t put you off entirely). The airstrip is at an elevation of 2800m with a an abrupt drop off down to a river valley below.

The 'Complete Idiots Guide to Landing at Lukla Airport' reads something like this:

1. Clear 13 high snowy ridges (beware of 100kph updrafts and air pockets)
2. When you see the pine tree with the condor nest on it bank left precisely 38 degrees north-by-north-west to avoid the mountain
3. Descend 'steeply' (use judgement) and negotiate cloud
4. Straighten the airplane until water on the dash is level
5. Land
6. Throw into reverse avoiding this giant concrete wall and mountain at end of runway
7. Breathe huge sign of relief and record another flawless flight in the log book.

Lukla airport runway

A quiet day at the bank in the departures lounge

Airport Arrivals Lounge

Yes, those stairs are resting on a bag of bloody meat