Tenzing-Hillary Airport, Nepal Tenzing-Hillary Airport, initially built to serve the small Nepalese town of Lukla, is now infamous for being one of the most dangerous airports in the world. In 2008, a plane trying to land here got caught on the runway and crashed.

The title of the "most difficult" airport for takeoff is often a tie between Tenzing-Hillary Airport (Lukla) in Nepal and Courchevel Altiport in the French Alps. Lukla is terrifying because its runway is only 1,729 feet long, has a steep 12% uphill grade, and ends in a 2,000-foot sheer drop into a valley; there is no "aborting" a takeoff once the brakes are released. Courchevel features a similarly short, undulating runway (1,762 feet) that lacks a "go-around" procedure due to the surrounding mountain terrain. Other contenders include Toncontín in Honduras, known for its high-altitude thin air and necessary sharp turns immediately after liftoff to avoid mountains, and Paro Airport in Bhutan, where only a handful of pilots are certified to navigate the narrow Himalayan valleys. In 2026, these airports remain "bucket-list" challenges for aviation enthusiasts, requiring specialized aircraft performance and extreme pilot precision to manage the combination of short runways, high elevations, and unpredictable mountain wind shears.