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Catherine Addison-Swan

EasyJet pilot names which three popular destinations have the most difficult airports to land at

Millions of us will soon be jetting off abroad on our summer holidays - but if you're a seasoned traveller, you may well have had an array of varied experiences when it comes to flying.

For us passengers, it's often turbulent weather that we notice disrupting our journey - but there are a few other factors that can make landing a plane more difficult, even for qualified pilots. And if you've ever wondered whether there are any airports in particular that are trickier to navigate than others, you're not alone.

One easyJet customer took to the airline's TikTok account to ask whether there were any airports that required extra training in order to land at. And a pilot responded to the query in a new video, naming three airports in easyJet's network that are only for the most experienced pilots.

READ MORE: UK Foreign Office issues further holiday weather warnings for Spain and Portugal amid Storm Oscar

The pilot explained that these popular destinations require pilots to undergo additional training in flight simulators before being allowed to fly to them. This can be because of the way the airport itself is built, or because of the added difficulty brought about by the land surrounding it.

The first place of this kind mentioned by the pilot was the Greek island of Mykonos, a tourist hotspot that gets scorching in the summer months. Mykonos Airport has "a very short, narrow runway", the pilot explained - just 1,903 metres compared to Newcastle Airport's 2,330 metres, or Heathrow's smallest runway which is 3,658 metres.

The second destination named by the pilot as having a notoriously tricky airport to land in was the city of Funchal in Madeira, Portugal. "That's got a bit of terrain there, and some challenging winds to negotiate, so you have to have additional training for that," he explained.

And the third and final airport was Innsbruck Airport in Austria, with its location in the Alps making it one of the most difficult to approach. "The captain and the first officer will both need additional training in the simulators, and then they'll need to fly there with the training captain before being able to fly there with passengers," the pilot said.

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