Aviation Vocabulary: ALTIport (In pictures)

                                  

Altiports, which are constructed in mountain regions, are defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as “a small airport in a mountainous area with a steep gradient runway, used for landing up the slope and for take-off down the slope, thereby making use of only one approach/departure area.”

On altiports, the longitudinal profile slopes affect the acceleration of an aircraft during takeoff. If the aircraft faces a downhill while taking off, the aircraft experiences an additional force due to the component of gravitational acceleration. 

If the aircraft in an altiport experiences an uphill while landing, the aircraft decelerates quicker. 

The smallest runway in the world is Courchevel Altiport, which has a length of 537 meters and an 18.7% gradient. In comparison, Lukla Airport, which is regarded as “the most dangerous airport,” has a gradient of 11.7%.

Shigatse Peace Airport
Photo::钉钉 | Wikimedia 

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the longest runway, is Ulyanovsk Vostochny Airport in Russia and Shigatse Peace Airport in China the Airport runway is 5000m long. Unlike Altiports, these long runways often don’t have sharp gradients. 

Only small aircraft and helicopters can operate in altiports, such as the Jodel D140R, the Dornier Do-228, and other STOL aircraft. 

One could very well say that an altiport is a type of STOLport. The given picture is of a STOLport from Lukla. The common features of STOLports and altiports are that they both have small runways and operate small aircraft.

Not all altiports need to have paved runways. Lukla Airport‘s runway hadn’t been paved until the turn of the millennium. The picture above shows the Méribel Altiport, an aerodrome in France.

According to Webster Merriam dictionary, an airport defined as a place from which aircraft operate that usually has paved runways and maintenance facilities and often serves as a terminal. But not all altiports would be expected to have maintenance facilities. An international airport, as shown in the picture is equipped with maintenance.

Given that some altiports such as Courchevel (as shown in the picture above) are enveloped with snow for some part of the year, it is possible that altiports might not have proper maintenance facilities. Lukla altiport, the gateway to Everest, has no maintenance facilities either.