Lukla Airport took close to a decade to construct, initiated by Sir Edmund Hillary in 1963 and completed in 1974.
The airport is dangerous due to factors such as high elevation, short runway, surrounding mountains, and thin air.
Lukla Airport's closest substitute is Phaplu Airport, but it takes a few days of a hike to get to Lukla from there. .
John Krakauer's words, “Everest has always been a magnet for kooks, publicity seekers, hopeless romantics and others with a shaky hold on reality," encapsulate why thousands of mountaineers and trekkers alike are drawn to the tallest mountain in the world. In this pursuit, their initial journeys aren't marked along the routes that Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa took to Lukla. Instead, most travelers opt to fly to this village, which is home to an exceptionally thrilling airport - Lukla, aka The Tenzing Hillary Airport, often dubbed the most dangerous in the world.

It is said that the name Lukla means an abode of sorts for goats and sheep despite a paucity of such creatures in the region. Many pilots have a dream of flying an aircraft to the airport here, while many passengers are visibly nervous during the flights when turbulence cuts, and they are left to wonder if the airport (or the flight to it) is not simply dangerous but downright fatal. Let's take a look at some interesting facts about this airport that is shrouded with awe, wonder, mystique, and fear.

1
Construction of the Airport took close to a decade
Airport Elevation: 9,500 ft (2,896 m)
Milestone

Year

Initiation of the airport

1963

Completion

1974

Concretization of the runway

2001

When Sir Edmund scaled Everest, he trekked from Jiri to Lukla and then mountaineered his way to becoming a celebrity. The route from Jiri to Lukla is known as the 'classic' way to get to the tallest mountain in the world. But Sir Edmund took the initiative to carve out an airport in the Everest region so that travel to this region would be easier.