Courchevel Airport - a place where not every pilot dares to land

Landing is considered one of the most difficult stages of air travel, but there are airports on our planet where landing turns into an extreme attraction. Today we will tell you about Courchevel Airport, an incredible place where the runway is located at a decent angle, in the middle of a mountainous area with difficult weather conditions and where not every pilot, even an experienced one, is allowed to land and take off.

Courchevel is located in the western part of the Alps, in the east of France. This ski resort is located at altitudes from 1300 to 1800 meters and is open from November to May. In order to get here, you can use vehicles from Geneva or Lyon, where there are full-fledged airports, but you can get a fair dose of adrenaline and try to fly directly to Courchevel.

The fact is that this picturesque place has an airport, which is one of the 10 most dangerous on the planet. Due to the fact that there are mountain peaks and steep slopes around Courchevel, it was very difficult to find a suitable place for the airport. The local runway has a length of only 525 meters and is located on a hillside with a surface angle of 18º. In addition, the runway itself, located at an altitude of about 2,000 meters, is not a strip in the literal sense of the word, but is a wavy surface with a hill in the middle of the path. But that is not all. The meteorological conditions at Courchevel Airport are also far from ideal, therefore cancellation of flights due to bad weather conditions happens here regularly.

Of course, such a peculiar airport, as in Courchevel, is not capable of receiving every aircraft. Only passenger aircraft with a capacity of not more than 20 people fly here, which have shortened take-off and landing characteristics, as well as helicopters. In addition, all pilots who wish to fly here must undergo special training and have permission to fly.