Highest Airports in the World by Elevation

The ten highest commercial airports in the world, ranked by elevation above sea level in metres. Daocheng Yading in China tops the list at 4,411 m, followed by Qamdo Bamda at 4,334 m and Shigatse Tingri at 4,317 m.

Eight of the ten are in China, and all eight are on the Tibetan Plateau. The other two are in the Andes: Vicco in Peru at 4,103 m and El Alto, serving La Paz in Bolivia, at 4,061 m. The whole list spans just 461 metres, from 4,411 m down to 3,950 m at Shannan Longzi — every airport here sits above 3,950 m, which is higher than any peak in the Alps except the highest few.

Altitude changes how aviation works, and that is what makes this list more than a curiosity. Air at 4,400 m is roughly 40 percent less dense than at sea level, which means wings generate less lift and engines less thrust. Aircraft need much longer runways to take off, and they must often carry less fuel, cargo or fewer passengers to do so safely. That is why airports at this height tend to have exceptionally long runways and why relatively few aircraft types are certified to operate from them.

El Alto is the best known of these because it serves a capital city of nearly a million people; the Chinese entries mostly serve remote regions of Tibet and western Sichuan where road journeys take days.

A note on definitions: this ranks airports with scheduled commercial service. Higher airstrips exist — used by military, mining and mountaineering operations — but they do not sell tickets, and lists that include them will not match this one.