PBH which airport. The most dangerous airport in the world Bhutan's most dangerous airport

What to do if the flight is canceled

If the flight was canceled more than 24 hours before departure, then passengers are transferred to similar flights of the airline. The costs are borne by the carrier, the service is free for the passenger. If none of the options offered by the airline suits you, most airlines can issue a " forced return". After confirmation by the airline, the money will be returned to your account. Sometimes this may take several weeks.

How to check in at the airport

Online check-in is available on the websites of most airlines. Most often, it opens 23 hours before the start of the flight. You can go through it no later than 1 hour before the departure of the aircraft.

To check in at the airport you will need:

the identity card specified in the order,
birth certificate when traveling with children,
printed itinerary receipt (optional).

What can you take on a plane
Hand luggage is the items that you take with you on the plane. The carry-on baggage allowance can vary from 5 to 10 kg, and its size most often should not exceed the sum of three dimensions (length, width and height) from 115 to 203 cm (depending on the airline). A handbag is not considered hand luggage and is carried freely.

The bag that you take with you on the plane should not contain knives, scissors, medicines, aerosols, cosmetics. Alcohol from stores duty free can only be carried in sealed bags.

How to pay for luggage at the airport
If the baggage weight exceeds the norms established by the airline (most often - 20-23 kg), you need to pay for each kilogram of excess. In addition, many Russian and foreign airlines, as well as low-cost airlines, have tariffs that do not include free transportation luggage and must be paid separately as an additional service.

Baggage must be checked in at the airport at a separate drop-off check-in desk. If you are unable to print boarding pass, you can get it at the usual check-in counter of the airline, and check in and check in your luggage there.

Where to find out the arrival time if you are a greeter
You can find out the time of arrival of the aircraft on the online scoreboard of the airport. The Tutu.ru website has an online scoreboard of the main Russian and foreign airports.

You can find out the exit (gate) number on the arrivals board at the airport. This number is located next to the arrival flight information.

Paro Airport is the only one international Airport Bhutan, located 6 km south of the central part of the city of Paro in the valley of the river of the same name. The airport is also the only airport in Bhutan that has a paved runway - Yongphulla Airport, Bhutan's second airport, has an unpaved runway.

Paro Airport is the base airport and main transit hub for national carrier Druk Air and Bhutan Airlines. Paro Airport is regularly used by several international airlines to carry out their cargo and passenger flights.

Paro Airport Passenger Terminal

Paro airport one passenger terminal. The airport terminal building houses various retail outlets, shops, restaurants, bars and cafes.

Search and book flights to Paro

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How to search chip flights experienced travelers? How do they manage to save up to 30% of the average ticket price? The answer is very simple - they do it in advance. Everyone knows the fact that a ticket bought three months before the date of departure is significantly cheaper than a ticket bought a week in advance.

When a future air passenger is going to buy an air ticket to Paro in advance, he may not take the first option he finds, but watch the price change for some time. Often, for his patience, he is rewarded with a few more saved hundreds of rubles. But constantly going to the site and checking the price is tiring. Therefore, we offer visitors to our site a subscription service for changing airfare prices. You need to enter your email address, city of departure and destination (if not specified or do not match your future itinerary). After that, you will begin to receive letters with information about the new prices for air tickets. As soon as you see that the price has decreased, you can immediately buy a ticket to Paro at a cheap price.

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Airport name: Paro. The airport is located in the country: Bhutan. The city where the airport is located. Paro. IATA airport code Paro: PBH. The IATA airport code is a three-letter unique identifier assigned to airports around the world. International Association air transport (IATA). ICAO airport code Paro: VQPR. The ICAO airport code is a four-letter unique identifier assigned to airports around the world by the International Organization civil aviation(ICAO).

Geographical coordinates of Paro airport.

The latitude at which the airport is located: 27.400000000000, in turn, the longitude of the airport corresponds to: 89.420000000000. Geographical coordinates latitude and longitude determine the position of the airport on the earth's surface. To fully determine the position of the airport in three-dimensional space, a third coordinate is also needed - height. The height of the airport above sea level is 2235 meters. The airport is located in the time zone: +5.5 GMT. Air tickets always indicate local time departure and arrival of the airport according to time zones.

Kingdom of Bhutan

Bhutan's Paro Airport is considered the most difficult airport for pilots in the world. This is the only airport in the Himalayan kingdom that has international status and an asphalt runway almost 2 kilometers long. The entire territory of Bhutan lies in the mountains, between 170 and 7000 meters above sea level. It is clear that it was not so easy to find a straight and long strip of land in such an area for the construction of a runway. The airport is located in a gorge, at an altitude of 2237 meters above sea level. The gorge is surrounded by mountains about 5.5 kilometers high, so in order to take off or land at this airport, special pilot skill is required, as well as perfect visibility.

Paro airport

Paro Airport is one of two airports in the Kingdom of Bhutan. Located six kilometers from the city of Paro at an altitude of more than two thousand meters in the narrow valley of the Paro River, the airport is surrounded by five thousand peaks, therefore it is considered one of the most difficult on the planet, and only eight pilots in the world certified to perform landing in it.

Paro Airport (ICAO: VQPR) is the only tarmac airport in Bhutan

If tourist tours serves a lot of flights, then units of planes land at Paro Airport. When an aircraft comes in for a landing over runway number 33, it must first bypass the mountain and start landing at a height of literally a few tens of meters. A glide path passing low above the ground leads to a hole between the mountains. They say that when landing, the pilot can meet with local residents eyes.

First, it flies perpendicular to the take-off from right to left behind the first right "hill", then it turns sharply and takes off from behind the left "slope" with a roll to the right in order to have time to land:

Lifting the plane is also difficult, especially psychologically: in front of the pilot there is a continuous wall - a mountain that is directly on the course from runway. The pilot has to carefully maintain the vertical speed, because even a small drawdown means death. At the same time, the rock located on the right is only 150 meters away. Taking off, the plane gains altitude along the funnel until it passes the height of the mountain peaks:

The only one in the world aviation company, which operates flights to Paro Airport, is the national carrier of Bhutan - DrukAir. Two Airbus A319s with high-torque A320 engines installed on them operate regular flights.

Pilots from DrukAir, which translates into English as DragonAir, fly with the door open:

A DrukAir aircraft near the Paro airport terminal building:

In 2011, I visited with colleagues (host: Elena Tolstaya, cameramen: Alexander Beglaryan, Alexander Kiper and me 🙂) very interesting country- Kingdom of Bhutan. Some people don't even know it exists. Therefore, I’ll write a couple of lines ...

This state is located in the Himalayas, between India and China. It is a constitutional monarchy. Of course, all the power there belongs to the people, but the people govern, of course, the king. Here, his subjects somehow got together, chatted and decided to invite us to visit, so that we, the first official delegation from Russia, would tell you about this wonderful miracle - tiny Bhutan. About him amazing nature, original culture, unique traditions, amazing social structure.

Actually, the main concern of the authorities is to make fellow citizens happy. This is done by a special Ministry of Happiness. Its employees day and night raise the standard of living and improve its quality. All changes are measured by special measures, the main of which is the gross national happiness, known in our world as the gross national product ...

Bhutan in general is so unique that it requires many separate posts. Therefore, to begin with, I will briefly talk about one of the main attractions - legendary Paro airport. It has long and deservedly been called most dangerous airport in the world. But it is through these air gate you can go to Bhutan. Or, as the locals call it, Druk Yul - the Land of the Thunder Dragon...

Paro Airport, Bhutan. — Photo: A. Beglaryan ©

Paro Airport is the largest in Bhutan and the only international one. Opened in 1983. Located 6 km. from the city of Paro, and 55 km. from the capital of the country, the city of Thimphu. Situated at a height 2237 meters, in a narrow mountain valley, on the banks of the Paro River of the same name. From all sides, the airport is surrounded by the sharp peaks of the Himalayas, up to 5,500 meters high. Only eight pilots (crews of the national airline of Bhutan Druk Air) in the world are authorized to take off and land at this airport.

The climb and descent maneuvers are very reminiscent of a roller coaster at speed. 400 km/h. Imagine that along a narrow winding path between tall mountains you have to fly like a bullet, fitting into every bend and turn at an altitude of four thousand meters. From what he saw outside the window and from the sensations in the chair, you can piss. You can do it right in your chair. Sorry for the poverty and simplicity of speech.

The IATA code is PBH (in our native Sheremetyevo, the check-in employee dug into the computer for a long time, looked for this very IATA code, found it, tried to check in our luggage to Paro, but could not do it and issued the following phrase: Your suitcases are flying to Dela (emphasis on "E", instead of DEL), and you - where do you need to go ...).

The airport operator is a state-owned company Druk Air Corp.. Specifications airport: the working length of the runway - 1985 meters(taking into account the end safety lanes - 2270 meters), width - 30 meters, coating - asphalt. This runway is one of the few in the world that is shorter than its height above sea level. There are also four taxiways, each 15 meters wide.

The airport complex includes: a control tower with a control tower, a passenger terminal, a royal terminal (terminal for officials and delegations), a cargo terminal and two hangars, each of which can accommodate a 25-meter aircraft. Special airfield equipment is parked on the platform.

Climatic features and difficult terrain make it difficult for the airport to operate: due to constant winds, takeoffs and landings are carried out mainly in one direction - south. During climb and descent, severe turbulence in any weather. The airport does not have lighting equipment and operates only during daylight hours - according to the actual sunrise and sunset. Pilots use a visual approach pattern.

The passenger terminal, like all other buildings in Bhutan, is built in the national style, and includes: 4 check-in counters, 1 boarding gate, 1 baggage carousel, inspection, border, customs and veterinary control points, a currency exchange office, mail, restaurant, VIP-hall, souvenir shops and duty free. There is a parking lot and two small hotels. Passenger turnover of the airport in 2012 amounted to a little more than 30 thousand people.

In fact, the airport is used by the only airline Druk Air-Royal Bhutan Airlines or Royal Bhutan Airways. Only its aircraft are allowed to operate international flights to Bhutan. This is partly due to the peculiarities of the airport - the extreme complexity of takeoffs and landings. The airline's fleet consists of four aircraft: three Airbuses A-319 (leasing) and one ATR 42-500 (property). A-319 layout: 20 business class and 94 economy seats, ATR 42-500 - 48 economy class seats.

Airbus companies Druk Air differ from similar machines - these are equipped with more powerful engines from the Airbus A-320. Thus, with less mass, Bhutanese A-319s have a large thrust-to-weight ratio, which allows them to take off from a short runway when fully loaded. When landing at Paro airport, reverse is used almost until the plane comes to a complete stop. As a rule, flights are not loaded at 100%, and the planes are centered in a special way: passengers in the economy are seated two people in a row of three seats. Baggage restrictions: in economy - 20 kg in business - 30 kg But hand luggage (5 kg) will be included in these 20 or 30 kg.

IN route network Druk Air 13 destinations : local– Bumthang, Gelephu and Yongphulla; international– Dhaka (Bangladesh), Bagdogra, Gaya, Guwahati, Delhi, Calcutta and Mumbai (India), Kathmandu (Nepal), Bangkok (Thailand), Singapore. Almost all flights are operated with intermediate landings. Optimal connections for a flight to Bhutan from Moscow via Bangkok, from where Druk Air flies daily to Paro. Optimal in price - through Delhi, but extremely inconvenient in time.

And a small but important feature: Druk Air does not guarantee scheduled flights, as the time of arrival and departure depends on the weather conditions of Paro airport. The carrier officially warns about this on the website. Be careful.

On international flights Druk Air offers two classes of service: business and economy. We were flying in business and we were served by these girls. A new uniform appeared in 2008. They decided to update the image of flight attendants in honor of the 25th anniversary of the airline and on the occasion of the coronation of the fifth King of Bhutan. The costume is a variant of national women's clothing: a long skirt kira and shirt that. Both items of clothing are made of cotton and silk. The Bhutanese went the same way as the Malays and Singaporeans: they decided to make a flight attendant in a national costume a symbol of the country.

The girls admitted that the profession of a flight attendant in Bhutan is very popular. International flights are almost the only opportunity to see the world, even if this world consists of several neighboring countries. There are few flight attendants in Bhutan and the Bhutanese naturally know each of them by sight. There are also male flight attendants. But they are generally few. On any international flight the cabin crew consists of three flight attendants: two girls and a young man.

Our flight, originally announced as Paro - Delhi, turned out to be three times longer: while taxiing, the commander said that we were flying to the capital of Nepal - Kathmandu, and on the Kathmandu - Delhi segment, we learned that one more landing would be in Jaipur. Shuttle taxi. At the same time, they fed once. But delicious 🙂