Top Highest Airport in the World

China, Si Chuan Sheng, Gan Zi Zang Zu Zi Zhi Zhou, Dao Cheng Xian, 机场路8359+FP2 邮政编码: 627751

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Altitude is probably the last thing on your mind as you walk into an airport, particularly if you’re afraid of flying. You’ll have plenty of time to think about the distance between yourself and the surface of the sea on your flight. Never mind the fact that many of the world’s busiest airports—and certainly, in the United States—are at or near the coast.

This situation dramatically changes when you fly into or out of Daocheng Yading Airport, located in the Garzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of China’s Sichuan province. Perched nearly three miles above sea level on the Himalayan plateau, Daocheng Yading Airport holds the title of the highest airport in the world.

Just How High Is Daocheng Yading Airport?

Officially speaking, Daocheng Yading Airport sits at a height of 4,411 meters (14,471 feet) above sea level. Interestingly enough, it is just 77 meters (253 feet) higher than the world’s next-highest commercial airport—Qamdo Bamda Airport, also located in the Tibetan Autonomous Region. In fact, the world’s four highest airports are all under Chinese jurisdiction.

For comparison, the highest commercial airport serving a major metropolitan area is El Dorado International Airport, which is located near Bogotá, Colombia. This airport sits at 2,548 meters (8,359 feet) above sea—still more than a mile high, and higher than any U.S. airport.

A more commonly known comparison is to Denver International Airport, which sits at 1,655 meters (5,430 feet) above sea level, an altitude befitting for the airport of the fabled “Mile-High City.” However, Denver is not high enough for its altitude to affect its ability to handle nonstop flights to far-away destinations. Notably, United Airlines has operated a nonstop flight from Denver to Tokyo for nearly half a decade.

Interestingly, one accolade that Daocheng Yading Airport is unlikely to receive is the title of “world’s most dangerous airport,” since, in spite of its height, it is built on a plateau. The current holder of that title, Nepal’s Lukla Airport, sits about 1,500 meters (5,000 feet) lower than Daocheng Yading but is built onto a steep mountainside, making it substantially more treacherous. Moreover, while Chinese airlines may experience delays, they generally are not among the world’s most dangerous.

Why Daocheng Yading Airport Will Never Be Very Busy

If you’re at all an aviation enthusiast, you may have heard the term “hot and high,” which refers to the tendency of an airport’s elevation or the prevailing climate in the region where it is built to limit the length of flights that depart from it. For example, nonstop flights between Mexico City and Tokyo have only recently commenced, despite a substantial amount of traffic between these two major cities and the relatively manageable distance between them. Other long-served city pairs separated by similar distances include New York to Beijing, Istanbul to São Paulo, and Chicago to New Delhi.

Although Daocheng Yading Airport is not in a hot region, its elevation will ultimately prevent it from becoming a major air hub, or serving destinations outside of its immediate geographical region nonstop. This limitation is probably not a concern for local authorities, considering how far the airport is from major population centers.

How to Fly-In or out of Daocheng Yading Airport

As of January 2015, only two cities are served nonstop from Daocheng Yading Airport—Chengdu, the bustling capital of China’s Sichuan province, and Luzhou, a smaller city located to the southeast of Chengdu. Only three airlines service Daocheng Yading Airport—Air China, China Southern Airlines, and Sichuan Airlines—which means that visitors have limited options for accessing the airport.

Furthermore, it is notoriously challenging for foreigners to enter Tibet, which is a separate topic altogether. Consequently, it is reasonable to conclude that demand for the world’s highest airport will primarily derive from the domestic market within China for the foreseeable future.