through its doors every year, so it can
easily be placed in the ‘extreme’ category.
And what about Memphis, where every
weekday night FedEx Express transforms
a regional airport into a teeming hive
of activity? Or McMurdo’s ice runways
in Antarctica? Then a tiny airstrip in
Greenland entered the mix, along with
Gibraltar and Innsbruck.
We also thought it was important to add a
‘diff erent’ perspective to some of the stories,
so pilots were asked what it was really like
to fl y into Kai Tak, Courchevel and Funchal.
These insightful tales make fascinating
reading for those of us not lucky enough
to work on a fl ight deck. They should also
provide some reassurance to nervous
passengers, because none of the airports
featured here are intrinsically unsafe,despite what more sensationalist sections
of the media might say. Challenging and
exciting for pilots – maybe; nerve-wracking
for passengers – possibly; but dangerous?
No! Lastly, it was obvious that some readers
are fans of PC fl ight simulators, so a section
on simming was added too.
One thing that strikes me is the
multitude of de Havilland Canada
products that appear in the features that
follow – Twin O ers in the Caribbean,
Antarctica and the Himalayas, Dash 7s
in the Alps, and Dash 8s in Greenland. It
seems that wherever there’s an extreme
airport, there’s likely to be at least one of
the fi rm’s products on the ground or in
the air nearby, which is an amazing great
testament to the ruggedness of these
‘bush-planes’.Next year, who knows what we'll do –
there are more challenging airfi elds out
there that could make another Extreme
Airports a possibility. Perhaps we should
return to our previous theme of great
airports, or do something completely
diff erent again. I hope you enjoy
reading this volume and, if you have any
suggestions for Airports of the World’s
next special, I’d love to hear from you.Andy Martin – Editor
PS: If you enjoy Extreme Airports but you
haven’t seen Great Airports of the World
volumes two and three, you can obtain
them from the Key Publishing shop.INTRODUCTION
Extreme Airports // 5A TAP Air Portugal
Airbus A
makes a dramatic
approach to
Runway 05 at
Funchal. (Nelson
Sousa)04-05_Introduction.indd 5 11/05/2018 15: