The most bizarre airports in the world

Most of the time airports are nothing impressive – runways, terminals, baggage carousels and all the usual jazz. But in some parts of the world, engineers had to really think outside the box to make a functional airport a possibility. Some are built on brand-new pieces of land, some have roads or railways run right through the runway, and some are made of snow

Gibraltar Airport – Gibraltar

Gibraltar Airport's runway is intersected by the territory's main road, Winston Churchill Avenue. Every time a plane arrives or departs the road is closed off.

Kansai Airport – Osaka, Japan

Kansai Airport is the world's first offshore airport to be built on a completely artificial island. The island is 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) long and 2.6 kilometers wide and boasts two runways over 3,500 meters.

Don Mueang Airport – Bangkok, Thailand

Don Mueang Airport looks like any other midsize airport in the world until one takes a closer look – right between two runways nestles a golf course. The course has no separation from the runways and players are not allowed to play whenever a plane lands.

Phoenix Airfield – Antarctica

The Phoenix Airfield, whose runway is made from compacted snow, serves the McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Since it's made of snow the runway is unavailable for use during summer.

Cristiano Ronaldo Airport – Santa Cruz, Madeira, Portugal

Madeira Airport's runway sits on a platform, partly over the ocean, supported by 180 columns, each about 70 meters (230 ft) tall.

Macau Airport – Taipa, Macau, China

Macau Airport's terminal and air traffic control tower are located on the island of Taipa, while the runway is built on a strip of reclaimed land in the sea.

Saba Juancho E Yrausquin Airport – Saba, Netherlands

Saba Juancho E Yrausquin Airport, on the Dutch island of Saba in the Caribbean, has one of the shortest runways in the world, only 400 meters long. Flanked on one side by high hills, with cliffs that drop into the sea at both ends.

Gisborne Airport – Gisborne, New Zealand

Gisborne Airport is one of the few airports in the world that has a railway line, the Palmerston North-Gisborne Line, crossing the main runway.

Princess Juliana Airport – Saint Martin, Netherlands

Princess Juliana Airport has gained worldwide fame not for its facilities and comfort but for the fact that just before landing, passenger planes fly mere meters above a public beach on the shore of the Caribbean Sea.

Tenzing-Hillary Airport – Lukla, Nepal

The airport in Lukla is widely accepted as the most dangerous airport in the world. In addition to the high altitude, the airport has a very short runway, mountainous surroundings and is susceptible to periodic visibility changes.