Major airports by distance from "downtown"

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by ilcapo

Stockholm, Sweden: 26 miles

I didn't think it was bad, though. I've only been to Stockholm once, but I took the bus (the Flygbussarna) from Arlanda Airport to Stockholm and it didn't seem bad at all. No heavy traffic on the highway. This was back in 1997; I think now there is a train linking Arlanda to Stockholm's city center. Hehe this was back when I had a Swedish bf.

[Atlas]

Originally Posted by Riverranchdrone

Those top 5 or 6 cities being too close to their airports are why there downtowns are so flat and underwhelming. But Denver being that far away is just crazy.

Salt Lake doesn't have this problem because the runway approaches are oriented north-south (due to mountains) but downtown is directly east. The highest density zone has no hard cap on building height.

We don't need the FAA's help to have a short skyline!

[SFBruin]

Originally Posted by mhays

I'd say Seattle is in the sweet spot at 12 miles.

I'd say that Sea-Tac is pretty well-located, all things considered.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

I didn't think it was bad, though. I've only been to Stockholm once, but I took the bus (the Flygbussarna) from Arlanda Airport to Stockholm and it didn't seem bad at all. No heavy traffic on the highway. This was back in 1997; I think now there is a train linking Arlanda to Stockholm's city center. Hehe this was back when I had a Swedish bf.

I read once that it costs a fortune the train to the city centre. I guess everything is expensive in Sweden though.

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I guess many people already have seen those videos, but look how the landing is in Congonhas Airport (6 miles from Downtown).The most interesting part between 1:20 and 3:10:

• Video Link

And from the other side (0:45 to 2:55):

• Video Link

It handled 20 million passengers/year in 2019, I know it's safe and it's very convenient located, but I find chilling landing there.

[3rd&Brown]

Originally Posted by Yuri

I'll post two extremes for Brazil:

Aeroporto Santos Dumont (Rio de Janeiro), 0.7 mile

Aeroporto Internacional de Viracopos (São Paulo), 56 miles

Viracopos serves Campinas (10 miles) as well, but it's under the SAO umbrella, together with Aeroporto de Congonhas and Aeroporto Internacional de Guarulhos (Brazil's busiest and international gateway). Viracopos has became Brazil's largest hub with over 100 destinations.

Buenos Aires has a similar 2 airport configuration with Jorge Newbury literally at the edge of Palermo (the nicest area of Buenos Aires IMO) and Ezeiza (the main International Airport) 20+ miles from the center.

[UrbanImpact]

Originally Posted by Atlas

Salt Lake doesn't have this problem because the runway approaches are oriented north-south (due to mountains) but downtown is directly east. The highest density zone has no hard cap on building height.

We don't need the FAA's help to have a short skyline!

Fort Lauderdale, FL has a height limit due to airport proximity even though downtown is to the North of FLL and the runways run East/West. +/- 500-600ft.

Doppel Swooper by Kev Cook, on Flickr

[nito]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Ha. Yeah, they are very liberal with how they define London airspace. New York's 3 main airports are all within 20 miles of each other and carry about as many people as London's far more spread out airports.

Nothing liberal about it, the location of Stansted, Gatwick and Luton is a consequence of the Green Belt, and each site being former RAF (and during WWII USAF) bases which made development into commercial operations more palatable. Historically, London’s premier airport was Croydon (now a grade listed business park) which was superseded by Heathrow, but there have been dozens of proposals over the decades to replace Heathrow with a higher capacity airport with fewer restrictions further out.

On a side note, closing Heathrow and City airports would remove the height restrictions across London as well.

Compensating for the distance from the city centre is the presence of frequent fast rail connections into Central London. Stansted might be 2.5x further out relative to JFK, but the journey time on public transport is only a few minutes longer. With the opening of the Elizabeth Line, you can now get a one-seat ride from London’s three CBD’s to Heathrow.


Image sourced from Wikipedia, author: Cnbrb, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F..._links_map.png

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by nito

Stansted might be 2.5x further out relative to JFK, but the journey time on public transport is only a few minutes longer.

Yes, you have to cross through Queens to get to JFK from Manhattan. It's a very densely populated area.

[Atlas]

Originally Posted by UrbanImpact

Fort Lauderdale, FL has a height limit due to airport proximity even though downtown is to the North of FLL and the runways run East/West. +/- 500-600ft.

Interesting. Using Google Maps, it looks like downtown Fort Lauderdale is ~2.75 miles from the nearest runway and downtown SLC is ~3 miles.

Of course, unlike anywhere in Florida downtown SLC has foothills and mountains surrounding it that are taller than any of the buildings downtown. My guess is that commercial landing patterns avoid flying over downtown anyway.


Source

(this shot is missing a couple newer towers )

[dave8721]

Orlando has a minor airport just a 3.4 mile drive from Downtown.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Coro...78!2d28.546159

All Florida big cities Downtowns have an airport right next to them.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

1. Aeroporto Santos Dumont* (Rio de Janeiro), 1 mile
2. San Diego International Airport (San Diego), 2 miles
3. Logan International Airport (Boston), 3 miles***
4. San Jose International Airport (San Jose, CA), 3 miles
5. Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (Phoenix), 4 miles
6. Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport (Fort Lauderdale), 4 miles
7. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport* (Washington, D.C.), 5 miles
8. Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (Honolulu), 5 miles
9. Harry Reid International Airport (Las Vegas), 6 miles
10. Salt Lake City International Airport (Salt Lake City), 6 miles
11. Dallas Love Field* (Dallas), 6 miles
12. Charlotte Douglas International Airport (Charlotte), 6.5 miles
13. Miami International Airport (Miami), 7 miles
14. Tampa International Airport (Tampa), 7 miles
15. LaGuardia Airport* (New York City), 7 miles**
16. Austin–Bergstrom International Airport (Austin), 7 miles
17. Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (Atlanta), 8 miles
18. Philadelphia International Airport (Philadelphia), 8 miles
19. Nashville International Airport (Nashville), 8 miles
20. Portland International Airport (Portland), 9 miles
21. William P. Hobby Airport* (Houston), 9 miles
22. Midway International Airport* (Chicago), 10 miles
23. Montreal Pierre Elliot Trudeau International Airport (Montreal), 11 miles
24. Orlando International Airport (Orlando), 11 miles
25. Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (Seattle), 12 miles
26. Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport (Minneapolis), 12 miles
27. San Francisco International Airport (San Francisco), 12 miles
28. Baltimore/Washington International Airport (Baltimore), 12 miles
29. St. Louis Lambert International Airport (St. Louis), 13 miles
30. Cleveland Hopkins International Airport (Cleveland), 13 miles
31. Oakland International Airport* (San Francisco), 14 miles
32. O'Hare International Airport (Chicago), 15 miles
33. John F. Kennedy International Airport (New York City), 15 miles**
34. Newark Liberty International Airport* (New York City), 17 miles**
35. Los Angeles International Airport (Los Angeles), 18 miles
36. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (Dallas & Ft. Worth), 20 miles
37. George Bush Intercontinental Airport (Houston), 20 miles
38. Detroit Metropolitan Airport (Detroit), 20 miles
39. Washington Dulles International Airport (Washington, D.C.), 25 miles
40. Denver International Airport (Denver), 27 miles

Added Rio's Santos Dumont, Montreal's Pierre Trudeau, Oakland International, and San Jose International. I attributed Oakland International to San Francisco but attributed San Jose International to San Jose since it is a different MSA. I did the same for BWI/Baltimore and FLL/Fort Lauderdale in the initial list.

Originally Posted by Yuri

Viracopos serves Campinas (10 miles) as well, but it's under the SAO umbrella, together with Aeroporto de Congonhas and Aeroporto Internacional de Guarulhos (Brazil's busiest and international gateway). Viracopos has became Brazil's largest hub with over 100 destinations.

In the spirit of consistency, Viracopos would be attributed to Campinas if I treated it like I did SJO, OAK, BWI, and FLL. I haven't added it yet, though if you'd like to add some additional context.

[Buckeye Native 001]

Flying into DEN from the east at night is fun. "Where the hell is the city!?"

[Yuri]

The tragic Montreal-Mirabel would be 35 miles away from Montreal.

Montreal got the Olympics, got one of world's largest airport and both failed right when Toronto was overcoming it.

[MplsTodd]

According to Google Earth, the distance from the center of downtown Minneapolis to the center of MSP is 7.0 miles rather than 12 miles. Perhaps if one drove 35w to Highway 62 and then Hwy 55 to the entrance it might be 12 miles, but as the eagle flies it’s only 7 miles!

[Streamliner]

San Diego is the closest airport to any downtown I've seen. If you measure from the runway apron, it's basically across the street from the edge of downtown. Less than a mile to City Hall (in the absolute center) for sure. Landing in San Diego has the most dramatic/scary city views.


Source

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by Streamliner

San Diego is the closest airport to any downtown I've seen. If you measure from the runway apron, it's basically across the street from the edge of downtown. Less than a mile to City Hall (in the absolute center) for sure. Landing in San Diego has the most dramatic/scary city views.

Rio de Janeiro's Santos Dumont is a bit closer.

Hong Kong's Kai Tak even though more distant, was surrounded by mountains and Kowloon's highrises. 747s almost touching buildings' roofs.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by MplsTodd

According to Google Earth, the distance from the center of downtown Minneapolis to the center of MSP is 7.0 miles rather than 12 miles. Perhaps if one drove 35w to Highway 62 and then Hwy 55 to the entrance it might be 12 miles, but as the eagle flies it’s only 7 miles!

it's an issue of the all-expressway route from downtown to the airport being more convoluted than taking surface streets, but also quicker according to google maps.

the all excpressway route from 7th/marquette in downtown to the main terminal at MSP is 12.8 miles, and 17 minutes of drive time.

conversely, there's a much more direct surface street route heading down hiawatha ave. that's only 9.9 miles, but 22 miutes according to google maps.

and goole maps says that talking the metro blue lightrail line for that same trip would take 37 minutes, though a fair bit of that is the walking on either end (only 22 minutes of train time).

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by MplsTodd

According to Google Earth, the distance from the center of downtown Minneapolis to the center of MSP is 7.0 miles rather than 12 miles. Perhaps if one drove 35w to Highway 62 and then Hwy 55 to the entrance it might be 12 miles, but as the eagle flies it’s only 7 miles!

Yeah, the MSP distance is a bit inflated since there is no entrance to the airport on the northern or western side of the airport. You have to drive all the way around the airport if you're approaching it from the direction of downtown Minneapolis. I found this very annoying about MSP when I used to fly there for work a lot.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Yeah, the MSP distance is a bit inflated since there is no entrance to the airport on the northern or western side of the airport. You have to drive all the way around the airport if you're approaching it from the direction of downtown Minneapolis.

for that reason, MSP is actually "closer" to downtown st. paul than it is to downtown minneapolis in terms of driving distance.

as the crow flies:

downtown minneapolis to MSP: 7.1 miles
downtown st. paul to MSP: 7.3 miles


driving distance:

downtown minneapolis to MSP: 12.8 miles (9.9 miles on the surface street route, though it's slower)
downtown st. paul to MSP: 8.8 miles

[kool maudit]

Originally Posted by ilcapo

Stockholm, Sweden: 26 miles

Arlanda Express makes short work of it, though.