© Vyacheslav Argenberg / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0527 metres, uphill: reading Lukla's runway
Go Heli Nepal · · 5 min read
The airstrip everyone calls the world's most dangerous is built the way it is on purpose. What the slope does, why there is no second attempt, and what that means for your schedule.
Tenzing–Hillary Airport at Lukla has 527 metres of asphalt on an 11.7 per cent uphill gradient, a mountainside at the top end and a drop at the bottom. It is described in every listicle as the world's most dangerous airport, which is a lazy way of describing something that was designed carefully.
The slope is the brake
Aircraft land uphill. Gravity does most of the deceleration, which is exactly what you want on a strip a third the length of a normal one at an elevation of 2,845 m where the air gives wheel brakes and reverse thrust less to work with.
They take off downhill, for the same reason in reverse: the slope adds acceleration the thin air will not.
There is no going around
On a conventional approach a pilot who is not happy can add power and try again. At Lukla the terrain removes that option below a certain point — the approach commits.
This is why the airport is flown only by specific aircraft types with crews who hold a Lukla qualification, and why the schedule is unforgiving about visibility. A pilot who cannot see the strip does not attempt it, and there is nothing marginal to attempt.
What it means for your trek
Lukla does not close for an hour, it closes for the day. The passengers from that day join the next day's queue, and two bad days in October can take three to clear.
Build a spare day into each end of a Khumbu itinerary. If you have an international flight to catch and the queue is long, a helicopter seat out is the standard fix — several times the fare, and routinely worth it.
The full answer, kept up to date: Flying from Kathmandu to Lukla
