What's the most obscure airport you've visited?

[Mattg]

As per the thread title - what was the most out-there airport you've flown into or out of?

I realise the term "obscure" is subjective, as an airport in a small city in Zimbabwe (for example) is probably not that obscure for the people living there. But for the purposes of this thread, I wonder if anyone's been to an airport that no other AFF members have visited?

This doesn't necessarily need to have been on a commercial flight. An obscure airport could, for example, be a little-used airport in a major city such as Biggin Hill in London (which I have not been to and has no commercial flights).

If I think about some of the more obscure airports I've visited, ones that come to mind include Shymkent (CIT), Horta (HOR), Yellowknife (YZF) or Stewart Island/Oban (SZS).

 

[SueMartin]

Gove in the Northern Territory.

 

[Denali]

Yap, Micronesia. Once you checked in you literally was put into a square but no roof besser brick jail until boarding.

Arrivals luggage hall was a table where you pointed at your bag lined up behind it and someone picked it up and put it on the table. This was after the luggage was hand off loaded and carried over to the table by betel nut chewing locals. If you've seen the long term effects of betel nut then you'll know what it was like

 

[TomVexille]

YJAC

 

[dajop]

Hmm. Interesting. Not sure which is most obscure, outside Australia would have to be one of JSR (Jessore, Bangladesh), MJU (Mamuju, West Sulawesi, Indonesia), JGN, ( Jiayuguan, Gansu, China) DIG (Diqing, Yunan, China) or GLH (Greenville, Mississippi). Inside Australia YMMN (Milmerran, Qld) or YWRN (Warren, NSW).

 

[VPS]

It's a toss up between YPDA and YLEC but I'm sure @TomVexille has been to YLEC

 

[PERLHR]

Dunno if it's obscure really but it's blooming interesting. Not many runways cross main roads to link between two countries. My vote: Gibraltar!! Lived there for for over 3 years and never tired of flying in and out.

 

[Quickstatus]

BWQ (Brewarrina) when I did a locum in the attached town. I hitched a ride with the RFDS

 

[Daver6]

Commercial would probably be SDV (Sde Dov, Tel Aviv) which is now closed. Non-commercial perhaps YMDN (Merredin, WA) or YWRC (Wave Rock airstrip). Depends really what you define as an airport though?

 

[VPS]

Visited but didn't fly in or out of

 

[Lynda2475]

Have flown into and out of both NZC (Maria Reiche Neuman Airport Nazca Peru) round trip and GPS (Galapagos Airport) from/to GYE (Guayaquil Ecuador).

In Aus probably OKB (the beach on Fraser Island) or YTBY (why is there no IATA code for Talbot bay - plenty of seaplanes land there?)

 

[RooFlyer]

Can we have airport names and locations, please, rather than codes; 'HPY' might be in rural Malawi or suburban Sydney and its nice to know where the obscure places actually are.

 

[Quickstatus]

Can we have airport names, please, rather than codes

Fair point. As this is an obscure airport thread.

 

[RooFlyer]

For me, its Man Airport, MJC, in western Cote' d'Ivoire.



followed by Chibougamau, YMT, central Quebec



Both charters to mining projects.

 

[andye]

Lydd airport (LYX) in Kent (now aka London Ashford) was for my first overseas trip with family. It was really an alternative to a ferry before boarding for a long coach journey to Austria.

Mara Serena Lodge airstrip (MRE) for Masai Mara on honeymoon was pretty small-scale too

 

[Gladstone Tim]

Well-known and probably well-visited by AFFers…Tenzing-Hillary Airport (IATA: LUA, ICAO: VNLK prior to trekking to Everest Base Camp. Was on the mountain in 2019 when the Summit Air plane took out the helicopter.

 

[tgh]

I have been trying to find the locations but time has dimmed the detail
Several bush strips in Kenya that took a Cessna Caravan, half a dozen bush strips around Broome in a Cessna 210, numerous bush tracks and scrub clearings in western QLD that took my bosses Comanche, several paddocks around Victoria that took a tri pacer delivering beer to the firies …..

I contributed to the thread for a bit of fun but as there are now rules in place and I can't be bothered scouring the web for some obscure airport code out in the boonies to meet the new rules, please ignore my worthless and inaccurate contribution and carry on…...

 

[Steady]

BWB, YGPR, & YTMO

i drive past YHEY going to work and know the owners, but have not flown to/from it

 

[Gladstone Tim]

Might also consider Lake Evella/Gapuwyak in Eastern Arnhem Land where I’d hitched a ride with my GP sister in an NT Aeromedical Service Nomad.

 

[jastel]

Landing at Duxford (grass strip) in a private small plane and taxiing to park beside an SR71 Blackbird and a B17 Bomber before visiting the museum was probably my strangest one. FYI its free entry to museum with landing but you have to pay 20 quid for landing fees or something.

The big toys were outside due to the redevelopment.