Airports Council International (ACI) World predicts that global air passenger volume will surpass pre-pandemic levels in 2024 as the industry continues to bounce back from COVID-era travel limitations. In 2019, global passenger traffic was 9.2 billion. Prior to the pandemic, this level was predicted to reach 10.5 billion in 2023, though in reality it ended up hitting 8.6 billion in 2023, which was about 94% of the 2019 level. In 2024, ACI expects air travel will see 9.4 billion passengers. Air is one of the safest ways to travel, as aviation accidents are rare. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) reports that the five-year average from 2018 to 2022 was just one accident for every 0.81 million flights. The fatality rate in 2022 was just 0.11; which means, on average, a person would have to take a flight once a day for over 25,000 years in order to experience a 100% fatal accident. However, not all airports are created equally when it comes to safety. While passengers may be most concerned about the state of the airport they're traveling from, the service they receive and the comfort of their flight, some of the most important safety factors that pilots have to consider are the airport's runway, the location of the airport and the environment surrounding it. In the slideshow above, we'll look at eight of the scariest airports in the world for pilots to navigate, according to Executive Lounges by Swissport.

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