16 airports that boast of amazing records

There are some interesting airports around the world. Take for example the Paro International Airport in Bhutan where only eight pilots are certified to land planes, or an airport where the plane's runway intersects a busy highway.

Fascinated? Read on to find out more about the amazing records of these 16 airports across the world...

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Most international passengers

Airport: London Heathrow Airport

Location: Hillingdon, Greater London, United Kingdom

The airport has seen 6.65 crore or (66.47 million) passengers annually.

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World's closest

Airport: Papa Westray and Westray Airport, neighbouring islands in the Scottish Orkney

Location: Scotland

Papa Westray Airport is best known for being one of the two airports joined by the shortest scheduled flight in the world, a leg of Loganair's inter-island service, to Westray Airport.

The distance is 2.8 km and the scheduled flight time including taxiing is two minutes.

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World's busiest

Airport: Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport

Location: Atlanta, Georgia, United States

The airport has been the world's busiest airport by passenger traffic since 1998, and by number of landings and take-offs since 2005, according to Wikipedia.

It states that Hartsfield-Jackson held its ranking as the world's busiest airport in 2012, both in passengers and number of flights, by accommodating 95 million passengers (more than 260,000 passengers daily) and 950,119 flights.

Many of the nearly one million flights are domestic flights from within the United States.

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World's shortest runway

Airport: Juancho E.Yrausquin Airport

Location: Island of Saba, Netherlands Antilles

The only airport on the island, has a runway of just 400 metres. The short runway created a risk for landing and take-off. Due to the shorter runway only small planes can operate here.

The airport is flanked by hills on one side and sea starts where the runway ends.

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Highest in the world

Airport: Daocheng Yading Airport

Location: Tibet

At 4,411 metres above sea level, Daocheng Yading is the world's highest civilian airport, surpassing Tibet’s Qamdo Bamda Airport - the previous record holder.

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Lowest in the world

Airport: Bar Yehuda Airfield

Location: Israel

Located at 1,240 ft below mean sea level, Bar Yehuda Airfield is an hour and a half drive from Jerusalem.

It is used as an alternate airport for charter and sightseeing flights.

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Largest airport building

Airport: Dubai International Airport

Location: Dubai

Upon its opening in October 2008, Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport became the second largest building building in the world by the floor space.

It has 12.76 million sq ft of floor space, second to China’s New Century Global Centre, a multipurpose building in Chengdu.

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Busiest cargo airport

Airport: Hong Kong International Airport

Location: Hong Kong

The airport handles 40.62 lakh (4.06 million) metric tonnes of cargo annually. It is also one of the hubs for Oneworld alliance and Asia Pacific cargo hubs for UPS Airlines.

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World's most isolated airport

Airport: Mataveri International Airport

Location: Easter Island

Mataveri International Airport is 3,759 kilometres from Santiago, Chile. The airport was once designated as an abort site for the U.S. Space Shuttle when polar orbital flights from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Southern California were planned, according to Wikipedia.

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Largest in the world

Airport: King Fahd International Airport

Location: Saudi Arabia

It is the world's largest airport in terms of land area and occupies 780 square kilometres.

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Most runways in a single airport

Airport: Chicago O'Hare International Airport

Location: Chicago, Illinois, United States

Chicago O'Hare International has eight runways. Earlier, the airport shared the crown with Dallas Fort Worth International as each has seven runways. In October 2013, O'Hare added its eight runway.

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Scariest in the world

Airport: Paro Airport

Location: Bhutan

With surrounding peaks as high as 18,000 ft it is considered one of the world's most challenging airports, and only eight pilots in the world are certified to land at the airport, according to Wikipedia.

It further states that flights at Paro are allowed under visual meteorological conditions only and are restricted to daylight hours from sunrise to sunset.

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Longest non-stop flights

Airport: Dallas-Fort Worth and Sydney

Location: US and Australia

The longest non-stop flight used to between Singapore and the US but in December last year it was discontinued. Currently, Qantas Flight 7 or QF 7, is the longest flight in the world.

The journey takes 15 hours 25 minutes and covers a distance of 13,804 kilometres.

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Most cars on the runway

Airport: Gibraltar International Airport

Location: Gibraltar

Being a tiny peninsula of only 6.8 square kilometres, there’s a lack of flat space on it. The territory’s airport therefore has a busy road bisecting the runway. Residents take this road to enter the neighbouring country, Spain.

The airport handles about 30 planes in a week and the road closes every time a plane has to land or take off.

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Most expensive

Airport: Hong Kong International Airport

Location: Hong Kong

The airport is one of the world’s most expensive transport infrastructures. It was constructed at a cost of $20 billion.

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Coldest in the world

Airport: Ice Runway

Location: McMurdo Sound, Antarctica

The Ice Runway is the principal runway for the US Antarctic Program. The annual sea-ice runway for wheeled aircraft is constructed at the start of each season and is used until early December when the sea ice begins to break up, according to Wikipedia.

Once Ice Runway closes, flight operations are moved to other closer airports.