Lukla airport in Nepal is the gateway to Everest. Whether you’re hiking to Namche or Everest base camp, chances are you’ll start in Lukla and arrive via its infamous airport. In my opinion, the less you research this airport, the better. The reason I say this is because your desire to hike in the Himalayas is likely greater than your fear of flying into Lukla. No sense in building up the unnecessary anxiety unless you’re an adrenaline junky.

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Personally, after experiencing the Lukla flight once I wouldn’t ever do it again. Flying in or out of the Lukla airport is extremely dangerous – which may be an understatement. The History Channel actually named Lukla Airport #1 in it’s episode of “The World’s Most Extreme Airports”. You can view the video below.

Lukla: The Birds-Eye View

The Lukla airport has a bad safety record and a short runway. It’s prone to accidents which do happen. Lukla itself is a high altitude village covered in unpredictable weather which makes the journey challenging. Planes can’t maneuver well at high altitudes and being so deep in the Himalayas the weather can change from good to horrible in a minute.

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Lukla Airport Airlines and Planes

The Lukla airport is used by locals as a short-cut into the village. This means locals and their kids, toys and animals occupy the runway until a loud air raid style horn blows to signal a plane coming in for landing. At this time the crowd scurries away while most residents outside of the airport look onto the runway to catch a piece of action – which is the landing itself. There’s not much for entertainment in Lukla, watching planes land is something “to do”. There are only a few airlines like Yeti Airlines that fly in and out of Lukla. Their planes are old and small, and can be compared to a minimally-maintained crop-dusters. The plane we arrived into Lukla on had duct-tape on the landing gear. The plane we departed from Lukla on had duct-tape on the windows.

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The Landing Into Lukla

Since the runway is built into the side of a mountain, you land on an inclined runway. The runway is about 12 degrees inclined and very short. As if the incline isn’t challenging enough, landing on a short runway requires precise timing by the pilot. If they overshoot the runway a tad, they run the risk of smashing the plane into the mountain side at the end of the runway.

The Departure from Lukla

At the end of the runway you’re met with a 2,000 foot cliff. There is zero room for pilot error. Timing and weather conditions must be near-perfect.

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