88
I nominate Paris Vatry airport. 147 km from Paris.
Don’t even think there’s a direct link to Paris...
57
The defunct Ciudad Real Airport, also marketed as "South Madrid Airport", is/was about 200 km (227km from the Puerta del Sol, the official distance) away from Madrid
41
San Diego, California and SAN: about 1.5km from downtown to the airport perimeter, and just over 3 km to the main passenger terminal.
37
Your best bet is Eilat, Israel.
The airstrip and the terminal is literally at the city centre.
Eilat's population as of 2017 is 50,724, so it satisfies your condition of a decent-sized city.
33
YMQ is a catchall for the airports in the Montreal metro area (similarly, LON is used for London, TYO for Tokyo, NYC for New York, etc.).
YUL is the main international airport (Pierre Eliott Trudeau)
YMX is Mirabel airport (cargo only right now, as far as I know)
YHU is Saint-Hubert, used for smaller planes on shorter routes from within the province of ...
31
It just fails to beat your 'Frankfurt' Hahn, but Lydd Airport is also called London Ashford Airport, even though it's 117 km from central London. Given usual traffic conditions, that's probably a longer drive with a car than from Hahn to Frankfurt.
31
Babies and small children at the airport
Did you bring your own baby food to the airport? You can have it heated in all restaurants at the airport. Our staff are happy to be of assistance. Microwave ovens are available in most of the airport restaurants.
30
It's 1,5 km on foot (1,23 km in a straight line) from the Gibraltar International Airport terminal to the beginning of the Main Street. Although Gibraltar's population is officially only 32k, so I don't know if it's decent-sized enough for the purpose of the question ;)
Google Maps
28
Billy Bishop airport in Toronto is less than a 200m from the Toronto central waterfront. How far it is from the city center depends mostly on how you define city center.
25
It's a bit of a cheat, but Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport (BZN) is approximately 150 km from the geographic center of Yellowstone National Park. Of course, Yellowstone National Park is huge; the closest point in the park is "only" about 75 km away as the crow flies, while the farthest point is about 200 km away. The park headquarters are 96 km ...
18
In Pisa, Italy, there are less than 3 km between the airport terminal and the Leaning Tower of Pisa which is on the opposite side of the city.
In Ponta Delgada (São Miguel Island, Azores) there are 4 km between "city center" and the terminal which is on the furthest end of the runway. But it's about 1,5 km to the closest end of the runway.
There are a lot ...
17
It's surprisingly close for a European city, but Reykjavík Domestic Airport (RKV) is only 2.1km from the city center; the closest edge of the airport only half that distance.
Do not confuse it with Keflavík International Airport (KEF) which most people use to fly to Reykjavik; that lies at a comfortable 50km distance.
16
Not going to win, but another that’s over 100km from the city with the same name is Stockholm Skavsta Airport which is 106km by road to the Stockholm city center.
16
Some airports report themselves how many transfer passengers they have (or at least what's the % of all passengers). E.g. Schiphol (AMS) had 71.053 million passengers in 2018, of which 36.6% were transfers, for a total of 26 million transited passengers. Heathrow claims a figure of 24 million transited passengers, 30% of its total.
According to the paper ...
15
Honorable mention should be given to Mexico City. The international airport is about 5km from the city center. That is not the shortest distance, but Mexico City is one of the bigger cities of the world. The airport is completely surrounded by urbanized greater Mexico City. It wasn't that way when the airfield was first built.
13
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is maybe six kilometers from the White House, and less than half that to the Pentagon (which is in Arlington, as is the airport).
11
Taipei's smaller, more central and less internationally known airport (Taipei Songshan Airport) is very, very close to the city center at about 3km - 4.5km depending on what you consider the center of Taipei.
It's also the only city on this list that is a megacity and a capital of a country.
https://goo.gl/maps/YcQjhkbsn7ddAMgaA
10
The distance
According to Google Maps, the distance from Bangkok to U-Tapao is upward of 170 kilometres by road, as shown in the screenshot below. The direct distance, as pointed out in a statement by Eva Air (in the quote below, in bold) is about 140 kilometres.
The future
There are plans for U-tapao Rayong-Pattaya Airport to become Bangkok's third ...
10
CXH must be it. Not sure what the center of Vancouver even is, but it's 500m from Waterfront Station which is the most important transit hub in Vancouver and 800m from Vancouver City Center station which, I guess, could be called the center of the city? It is a floatplane terminal, sure, but it has domestic and international flights both. There are more than ...
9
Las Vegas airport perimeter to the Strip is about two blocks/1.5km
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/36.1144423,-115.1639602/36.1007993,-115.16383/@36.1088893,-115.1689542,15.25z/data=!4m2!4m1!3e2
9
I like the previous answers as well, but I'd put Gibraltar as a contender. It literally bisects an urban thoroughfare and I walked from the major airplane to my hotel with my luggage and could walk from the airport to any location in the city - if you happen to not be able, there are taxis, etc.
9
Boston Logan airport's Terminal C, the farthest from the center of the city, is 3.4 km (2.1 miles) as the crow flies from Downtown Crossing.
9
St. Martin, population 32,000, has the airport right on the beach.
Image source
People have been hurt due to this.
9
I just tried. It is surprisingly easy, and I would totally recommend it even if you have only 4 hours between flights.
I will suppose that like almost everyone coming from an international flight you are at Terminal 3. From the arrivals, go down to the ground floor, where the local buses are, and walk to the right:
After the last bus stop there is still a ...
8
Allow me to nominate Burbank (Bob Hope) Airport. Burbank is a suburb of Los Angeles with over 100,000 population in its own right. The airport is downtown, to the extent downtown is meaningful with sprawl.
8
Not the closest, but from Da Nang International Airport (DAD) to what OSM calls the city center is only about 2.1km on foot. Google map couldn't point out the true center but you'll need a walking distance of 2.5km to the central railway station, 2.5km to the central Dragon bridge and 3.2km to the central market
Da Nang is the largest city in central ...
7
It's probably not the sort of airport you're thinking of, but in Washington State, it's 800 meters from Kenmore City Hall to the docks of Kenmore Air Harbor. And yes, it does have an airline operating regularly scheduled flights: Kenmore Air.
(Also in the Seattle area: the docks of Lake Union Seaplane Terminal are about 1100 meters from the Space Needle, ...
7
London City Airport (LCY) and Berlin Tempelhof Airport (THF) should both be in the running, though Tempelhof is closed now.
7
YMQ is the code for all Montréal airports (Trudeau and Mirabel), YUL for Trudeau Airport.
7
Belize City's (57k inhabitants) Municipal airport is literally downtown.
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