As the airline industry grew pre-coronavirus, so did its airports. In order to offer greater capacity, airports worldwide expanded into super-sized intercontinental hubs by adding more terminals and gates to facilitate extra aircraft. But there also needed to be capacity for these extra planes to arrive and depart in the first place. Correspondingly, airport expansions also came in the form of additional runways. But where can one find the most landing strips at a single airport?
Chicago O’Hare – an eight-runway behemoth
If you want to see as many runways as possible serving a single airport, look no further than Chicago O’Hare International (ORD). The windy city’s intercontinental mega-hub features no less than eight separate landing strips, as well as a helipad.
The orientation of these runways can also make for some spectacular parallel operations. Among the eight landing strips are two sets of three runways that run parallel to each other. Although aircraft are dictated by minimum separation distances laid out by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
However, O’Hare is so vast that there is sufficient space to allow two or even three aircraft to land simultaneously at the airport! You can see an example of this phenomenon in the YouTube video below. Coordinating such widespread operations across an enormous airfield requires three separate air traffic control (ATC) towers.
Magnificent seven
It is said that everything is bigger in Texas. While the largest number of runways is actually found at an Illinois airport, the Lone Star State’s Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) still boasts an impressive seven landing strips!
Before coronavirus, DFW’s seven runways played host to the third-largest number of annual aircraft movements of any commercial airport in the world. Much like Chicago O’Hare, this intercontinental mega-hub is also capable of facilitating triple parallel landings.
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Hit for six
There are also several airports worldwide that boast as many as six runways. In the US, these include the likes of Denver International Airport (DEN), Colorado and Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (DTW), Michigan.
However, looking beyond North America also yields an example of a six-runway airport. The Netherlands is home to Amsterdam Schipol Airport (AMS), whose six runways all serve a single terminal. They are also all located below sea level!
Perhaps Amsterdam’smost famous runway is the Polderbaan. Opened in 2003, this landing strip lies in an area of land reclaimed from a body of water. However, in order to ease noise pollution, this runway is situated five kilometers from the terminal building, beyond the A5 motorway. This also requires the airport, like Chicago O’Hare, to have multiple ATC towers.
Have you ever been to any of these airports? Or, if not, which is the airport with the most runways that you’ve visited? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments!
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