Hundreds of million of unsuspecting Travelers wander the Halls of their convenient downtown airport on the way to business or pleasure meetings.

Is it true that runways are the real problem in too many of the accidents like TAM 3054 or Garuda GA-200?

It has been presented in Crash of TAM Flight 3054 that these old airports are the largest contributor to these types of accidents. Below is a small sampling of airport cities across the USA that exemplifies this runway problem. As asked in The World's Dangerous Airports... “If runway length were not so vitally important, why is there such a dramatic difference in the length of runways at newer airports?”

Airports

1A. Congonhas Airport, Sao Paulo, Brazil opened September 12, 1936. Its runway length is 6,362 feet and is located 5 miles from downtown. This is an actual bad weather landing video performed at Congonhas airport.

1B. GuarulhosInternationalAirport, Sao Paulo, Brazil opened 1985, has 4 runways from 9,843 to 12,140 feet and is located 16 miles from downtown.

2A. Hollywood, Burbank, Bob Hope Airport Los Angeles USA opened May 30, 1930 Its sole all weather runway is 5801 feet. A longer visual (clear day) runway is available but still only 6886 feet. The good news is the airport is located 6 miles from downtown.

2B. Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles USA finished runway expansion in 1953, has 8 runways with 6 ranging from 10,285 to 12,091 feet and is located 16 miles from downtown.

3A) Midway Airport, Chicago USA opened December 12, 1927. While Midway has 10 runways only 8 are useable by airliner aircraft and far too short at between 5141 to 6522 feet. Once again the airport is located only 8 miles from the Chicago loop.

3B) O’Hare Airport, Chicago USA finished runway expansion in 1962, has 12 runways with 6 ranging from 10,005 to 13,000 feet and is 17 miles from the loop.

4A) La Guardia Airport, New York USA opened October 15, 1939. La Guardia has 4 runways that intersect. While they all are 7000 feet long (still short by airline standards) the New York controllers expect pilots to “Hold Short” of the intersecting runways. This gives the pilot an effective length of less than 5500 – 5900 feet. The good news, the airport is only 4 miles from Central Manhattan.

4B) JF Kennedy Airport, New York, USA finished runway expansion in 1971. It has 8 runways with 6 ranging from 10,000 to 14,572 feet. It is 14 miles from Central Manhattan.

5A) Reagan National Airport, Washington DC, USA opened June 16, 1941. It has 6 runways but airliners (not the express operators) use only 4 that range in length = 4,911 – 6869 feet. It is located 4 miles from downtown Washington DC.

5B) Dullas International Airport, Washington DC, USA opened 1962. It has 8 runways that range from 10,500 to 11,500 feet and will add another 9,500 foot runway in 2008. It is located 25 miles west of WashingtonDC

Government

The reasons for these airports are many. In the 1960s when the “new” airports came into existence all over the world, there was considerable hostile opposition to them. The arguments (presented mostly by business) centered on their distance from town and the working population. It is hard to envision today that Washington’s Dullas, Chicago’s O’Hare and Dallas’ DFW were truly out in the sticks back then; but it is true. As a result governments kept the older airports opened and the concept of multi-airport cities evolved.

Multi Airport Cities

Major cities became “international” and “domestic” airport destinations. As recent as February 2000, New York’s JFK was the international airport way out on the Long Island Expressway in Jamaica and LaGuardia was the domestic airport, an eye-blink from the East River and Manhattan. No where on the planet is this concept more obvious than in the Capital of the USA with Reagan National and Dullas Airports?

The problem is that with all the shinny buildings, smart highways and easy access; these convenient airports are still 70+ years old. The runways have been strengthened, the instrumentation has been improved, but no one has determined how to comfortably stop 100 tons of metal traveling 2.7 miles per minute on these short runways.

Read More Aviation Facts:

Crash of TAM Flight 3054

The World's Dangerous Airports

Garuda Flight GA-200 and Windshear

Garuda Flight GA-200 Crashes