If you're one of the 4,500 people who live on the remote volcanic island of St. Helena in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean, you probably wouldn’t consider this airport useless. However, St. Helena Airport has proved tricky to actually use. The airport opened in 2016 after years of controversy and construction delays, but due to weather conditions that made landing on the runway difficult, it wasn’t until a full year later that regular commercial services began.

Captain “Sully” Sullenberger’s dramatic aquatic landing of an Airbus A320 in the Hudson River in 2009 reminded the public of the seriousness of potential bird strikes of airports. Today, Toronto’s Pearson Airport, along with other major airports like New York’s JFK, use airborne predators — from falcons to kestrels and even bald eagles — to scare away (or hunt down) birds like seagulls which typically pose this threat.

Hoping to ease the anxieties of nervous travelers, San Francisco International Airport in 2013 created the “Wag Brigade,” a stable of trained dogs that roam the terminals putting people at ease. Three years into the program, they added LiLou to the roster, a hypoallergenic pig with a wide variety of tricks, including playing a toy piano.

Prefer airport options when you want to travel? Then settle down in New York, Los Angeles, or London. These three cities are among the rare few that can boast five or more airports within their metropolitan areas. Only four airports serve Paris: Charles de Gaulle, Orly, Beauvais–Tille, and Chalons Vatry.

The world’s tallest air traffic control tower at Jeddah's King Abdulaziz airport in Saudi Arabia soars 446 feet high (including a 30-foot mast). For perspective, that’s even taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza. A vision in copper that glints in the desert sun, the tower opened in 2017 and beat Tower West at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia — previously the highest control tower in the world — by just eight feet.

Once reserved for visiting heads of state, the Windsor Suite (named for England’s royal family) in London’s Heathrow Airport opened to the public in 2012. However, the exclusive lounge isn’t easy for the average traveler to take advantage of — it costs over $4,000 for a two-hour stay. The experience comes with complimentary bottomless Dom Perignon among other posh amenities.

If you have a layover in Amsterdam, skip the Amstels at the airport bar and check out some Vermeers and Rembrandts instead. The Rijksmuseum became the first art museum to open a branch in an airport in 2002. It's open 24 hours a day and is free to the public, and makes a great way to check out some Dutch Masters without leaving your terminal.

Kazakhstan's Atyrau International Airport is the lowest-altitude commercial airfield in the world, sitting at an elevation of 72 feet below sea level. Situated five miles outside the city of Atyrau, the airport is located close to the Caspian Sea, the world's largest salt lake. The area is predominantly known for its oil, so the airport frequently sees charter flights from oil and construction companies.

At more than 14,000 feet above sea level, Qamdo Bamda is the second-highest altitude airport in the world after Daocheng Yading Airport (also in Tibet). The reduced air pressure at that elevation combined with the area’s extreme weather means that pilots need much of the 18,045-foot runway length to take off.

Many U.S. airports are named after Presidents — from major airports like New York City’s JFK and D.C.’s Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to smaller ones like Theodore Roosevelt Regional Airport in Dickinson, North Dakota. The only President in this grouping without the honor of having an airport named after him is surprisingly the nation’s first President, George Washington.

Hong Kong International Airport is located on a 4.8-square-mile artificial island that was formed by flattening two smaller existing islands — Chek Lap Kok and Lam Chau — and reclaiming more than three square miles of land from the surrounding seabed. This was no small feat: The airport cost more than $20 billion and took nearly eight years to complete. Known as Chek Lap Kok Airport, the airport is located about 20 miles from Hong Kong Island.

More than 84 million passengers traveled through Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in 2019. To handle all that traffic, the airport currently has eight runways in operation — more than any other airport in the world — with more than 74,000 square feet of asphalt and concrete. The airport is capable of quadruple parallel landings, meaning four aircraft can land at the same time.

At 54 square miles, Denver International Airport is the biggest airport by land area in North America. It’s second in size only to the world’s largest airport, Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd International Airport. Nicknamed DIA, Denver's airport is also double the size of the second-largest airport in the U.S., Dallas-Fort Worth.

The large white numbers painted on the ends of runways are designated by taking the compass bearing and dropping the last number. Larger airports often have two or more parallel runways oriented the same way, so to distinguish them, the letters L (left), R (right), and C (center) are added after the number. Most runways also can be used in either direction to take advantage of winds, so they have two numbers.

The Hudson Group operates more than 950 newsstands at airports and transportation terminals across the U.S., more than any other company. In 2016, the company shared the top 10 most popular items sold at stores, and bottled water from various brands occupied spots one through five on the list, largely thanks to TSA restrictions on liquids carried through security checkpoints.

Prior to the pandemic, São Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport welcomed 43 million passengers in 2019, making it the busiest airport in South America. Its closest competitor is El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá, Colombia, which saw 35 million passengers the same year, followed by Lima’s Jorge Chávez Airport and Santiago’s Arturo Merino Benítez Airport.

According to figures reported by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the United States has 19,633 public and private airports — which far outstrips any other country in the world. Brazil is the next country on the list with 2,717 airports, and third-place Mexico has 1,740. China may soon move up the list — the government plans to build 215 new airports by 2035, which will almost double the country’s current number to 450.

There are over 5,000 public airports in the U.S., but the one that claims the highest-altitude title is Leadville-Lake County Airport in Colorado. Located in the Rocky Mountains, the airport sits at an elevation of 9,934 feet. And its lofty status is put to good use: Leadville Airport is an important base for high-altitude aircraft performance testing for both military and commercial purposes.

Heathrow Airport is the major international gateway into London and is one of the busiest airports in the world by international passenger traffic. Over 80 million passengers passed through Heathrow in 2019, its busiest year to date. Heathrow opened as a small, local airfield in 1929. Future expansion of Heathrow is dependent on governmental approval to build a third runway, as both current runways are operating near capacity.

The nation’s busiest airport and the largest hub for Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, Hartsfield-Jackson Airport saw 75.7 million passengers in 2021 as global air travel recovered during the COVID-19 pandemic. (In a more typical year, Hartsfield-Jackson sees over 110 million passengers annually.) The world’s five busiest airports for 2021 were all in the U.S. — following Atlanta were Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Chicago, and Los Angeles.