Pilots identify airports requiring extra training and certification to land at

Landing is one of the most demanding phases of flight, and a small group of airports makes it harder still. Pilots say these fields require extra training, specialised certification and years of experience before an operator can fly into them safely.

The challenges come from several directions at once. Mountainous terrain, unusually short runways, unpredictable weather and high-altitude environments reduce aircraft performance, and each factor eats into the margins a crew has to work with on approach.

These airports test even highly skilled aviators, pilots say. Routine operations are covered extensively in training, but these locations sit outside the routine.