The largest airports in the world – five giants
Today, air travel is the fastest way to travel. The road, which until relatively recently could take months, not even weeks, is now covered by airliners in a few hours.
Maximum speed, maximum comfort, maximum safety – these are the motto of modern airlines, and millions of passengers from all over the world are happy to use their services for their travels. It is natural that large passenger traffic requires truly large airports, so existing hubs are constantly being modernized and expanded, and new ones are being built at an accelerated pace.
Did you know that some airports in the world are larger than quite large cities? Excellent infrastructure, modern design, a huge selection of services available to passengers make them a kind of megalopolises living their lives inside other, real cities.
Today we have prepared a rating of the largest airports in the world – real giants that amaze the imagination. They must be seen at least once, because some of them can be safely called a wonder of the world!
1. King Fahd Airport in Saudi Arabia
Imagine Riga. Presented? Now double it, and you get King Fahd International Airport. The largest airport in the world occupies a truly colossal territory – 780 square kilometers!
Six-level terminals, one of which, Royal, serves only the royal family, two two-kilometer runways, a mosque for two thousand people, giant parking lots that can accommodate up to four thousand cars – all this allows the airport in Dammam to serve a really huge number passengers. By the way, it is worth noting that the King Fahd airport is not working at full strength due to its not very convenient location, but the situation is gradually changing, and passenger traffic has more than quadrupled over the past ten years.
2. Denver Airport in the USA
Opened in 1995, Denver Airport, the largest in the United States (140 km²), is probably shrouded in the largest number of rumors and secrets, most of which are associated with its unusual architectural and design solutions.
He is called a key link in conspiracy theory and provides endless lists of evidence supporting the mysterious functions of this airport. For example, the terminal roof, made in the form of white tents, symbolizing the Rocky Mountains: you can hear a lot of explanations of such a strange shape, including the “Indian” version – the Indian leaders allegedly demanded that the roof in the form of a wigwam from the municipal authorities of Denver, because then the place was still only the airport under construction was once the ancient cemetery of the indigenous inhabitants of the continent. By the way, another theory, all connected with the same world conspiracy, is more popular – “tents” made of fiberglass and teflon perfectly isolate the rooms inside from thermal imaging, which can allow a hidden presence of a large number of people inside the airport. Yes, and also, according to rumors, there is a labyrinth of underground passages, bunkers and so on under the airport, since a really large amount of land was taken out during its construction – a third of what was extracted during the creation of the Panama Canal.
Also, the list of “oddities” of the airport includes rather provocative paintings by contemporary artists decorating the main terminal of Denver Airport – a creepy soldier in a gas mask, destroying houses, dead girls and a dead leopard, a child reforging a saber – all this excites the minds of people who are confident in the existence of world conspiracies with wars, genocide and world domination.
And, of course, the giant horse statue at Denver Airport, which was dubbed the “pale horse of the Apocalypse” for its eerie appearance and red-lit eyes. Incidentally, a real story is connected with this local attraction – the author of this sculpture, Luis Jimenez, died while working on it, so the “blue horse” was completed and installed after his death.
3. Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in the USA
Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, located in Atlanta, may not be the largest in the world, but the busiest – annually it passes over 90 million passengers, that is, even more than London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle (70 and 60 million passengers, respectively) . Atlanta Airport is not very well known outside the states, as it serves mainly domestic flights, but the record 250,000 passengers passing through its terminals daily make it the busiest airport in the world, despite its relatively small area – only about 2000 hectares .
4. Beijing Capital International Airport
The largest airport in Asia, Beijing Capital International Airport, is the fourth largest in the world and the second busiest.
