Airports are massive installations, and if some of them are left to rot, it is for some heightened political tensions or even war itself that has destroyed its surroundings. There are some abandoned airports around the world that used to facilitate millions of passengers each year, but now they are nothing more than gigantic haunted structures that people avoid altogether. Here are some of these spooky abandoned airports throughout the world:
1. Nicosia International Airport, Cyprus
What was once a big airport, is now the victim of a territory dispute between Turkey, Cyprus and Greece with neither sides willing to let go.
2. Johnston Atoll Airport, USA
It used to be a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that housed an American military base with underground hospital and was subject to several attacks from the lethal Japanese submarines in World War II. It was abandoned after the War.
3. Ellinikon Airport Athens, Greece.
It is a historic airport 4 Km away from Athens itself and was first built back in 1938 before it was overrun by the Germans, and it became a Luftwaffe airfield to conduct bombings in Eastern invasions. After the war, it became a busy international airport and continued to be till the Athens Olympics of 2004 that forced the government to make another airport for the purpose. Now it lies abandoned, and the financially strained country doesn’t know what to do with it.
4. Castellon-Costa Azahar Airport, Spain
Now this is the strangest of the lot. The airport was completed and opened in 2011, but it has yet to see a single flight operated from it despite the 150 million Euro investment in it. Many blame it on the local politician Carlos Fabra, who is now under investigation for corruption in the courts. It was he who lobbied for this airport.
5. Don Quijote Airport, Spain
Spain seems to be the graveyard of abandoned airports. Costing a whopping 1.1 billion private sector investment, it was the country’s first and last private international airport. It was abandoned in April 2012 after the company operating it went bankrupt.
6. Stapleton International Airport, USA
This airport’s case is different from others as it was almost destroyed in a 1997 storm shortly after decommissioning. It only left behind an old control tower.
7. Berlin Tempelhof, Germany
It was the biggest building in the world before the Pentagon was completed. It played a significant role in the Berlin airlift forced by the Soviet Union shortly after the war by gathering much-needed supplies from the Allied ground missions. It was finally closed and converted into a public park. So, it isn’t abandoned at all but deserved to be on the list nonetheless.
8. Croyden Airport, England
One of the only three international airports before World War II, Croyden was an iconic landmark as it was the first proper airport with a control tower. Nowadays, a part of the old airport remains.
9. Gaza International Airport, Gaza
Opening in 1998, this airport was opened to provide much-needed connectivity to the rest of the world, and it saw some 700,000 passengers in a single calendar year. However, the Israeli forces shelled its radar station and control tower a couple of years later forcing it to shut down and eliminate the only airport in the poor nation. The runway was bulldozed within a few weeks.
10. Marine Corps Air Station, El Toro, USA
Situated in the California desert, the airport was famously used for Will Smith’s blockbuster movie named Independence Day. It was abandoned at the turn of the century.
11. Kai Tek International Airport, Hong Kong
It was the main airport of the city for 71 years, but its traffic was diverted to New Hong Long International Airport. It gave breathtaking views of the surroundings making take-offs and landings even more special.
12. Gaeleville, Shawangunk, USA
As you can see from the condition of the runway that it was pretty old. It used to house a military base and a civilian airport at the same time. Now it falls under a wildlife sanctuary.
13. Floyd Bennett Field, New York, USA
It was replaced by Newark Airport of New Jersey. It used to be an important airport of NYC. Now, just like Tempelhof, it is a public park.
14. Robert Mueller Municipal Airport, USA
The only ting that remains of the once busy airport is the old control tower.
15. Canute AFB, Rantoul, USA
It is a vintage airport opened to train pilots for the War. It was active for 75 years before it started to close in 1993. Many of the buildings and hangers have literally been left to decay.
