Syangboche Airport (VNSB)

Syangboche Airport is in Namche Bazaar, Nepal, at 27.8114° north and 86.7124° east. Its ICAO code is VNSB.

Syangboche Airport stands at 12,402 ft, which is 3,780 m above sea level. That is the surveyed elevation of the landing surface itself rather than of the surrounding terrain, which is why it can differ from the height quoted for the town or the ridge above it.

Yes, as a private charter. No operator on this platform publishes a scheduled helicopter route through Syangboche Airport, which is not the same as it being unreachable — a helicopter needs a level site and a clear approach rather than a runway. The charter desk quotes it against the date, the party and the landing permissions.

Syangboche Airport is VNSB in ICAO's four-letter system. It has no IATA code, which is normal for a Nepali aerodrome with no scheduled airline service.

Formally an airport: it holds the ICAO code VNSB, which is only issued to a registered aerodrome. "Airstrip" is the informal word for the short, often unlit mountain runways that make up most of Nepal's network, and it is used about this one as often as "airport" is. Both describe the same place. What is not an airstrip is a helipad, and ten of the eighteen sites on this platform are helipads with no runway of any kind.

Syangboche Airport is the nearest registered airport to the summit, about 29 km away in a straight line, though the airport almost everyone means is Lukla Tenzing-Hillary Airport at about 39 km: it has the scheduled service, and it is where the Everest treks and most Everest helicopter itineraries begin. Syangboche Airport itself is about 29 km from the summit. Closer than any airport are the helicopter landing sites at Everest Base Camp and Kala Patthar, neither of which has a runway.