Where to Find the World’s Tallest Air Traffic Control Towers

Admit it.  You’ve never wondered this before.  But now you kind of do.  Believe it or not, the United States has some of the tallest air traffic control towers in the world–but the USA does not ultimately come out on top.

The winner?

towers-english

Bangkok.

Air traffic control towers are tall.  When I got to stand on top of one at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, it was both exhilarating and terrifying.

20150622_104405-PANO

The third tallest tower, not taken into account in this graphic, is Atlanta’s.  Which isn’t surprising given Atlanta was 2015’s busiest airport.

Indianapolis Airport comes in at 9th place at 109 meters.

The top ten, from tallest to least is:

  1. Bangkok
  2. Atlanta
  3. Kuala Lumpur
  4. Haneda
  5. Guangzhou Baiyun
  6. Cairo
  7. Abu Dhabi
  8. Vienna
  9. Indianapolis
  10. Orlando

How many of these airports have you been to?

About Jeanne Marie Hoffman

Former bartender, still a geek. One equal part each cookies, liberty, football, music, travel, libations. Stir vigorously. +Jeanne Marie Hoffman Jeanne on Twitter

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7 comments

  1. I’m only 7/10, but really I should be 9/10 considering I’ve been trying to get to KUL and VIE for nearly 2 years… Just haven’t made them priorities. That said, Guangzhou Baiyun looks like an interesting airport, I’m just not sure of a reason to visit the city, based on a super quick google search, other than them being a SkyTeam partner.

    I do love the AUH tower though… It reminds me of something out of Stargate SG-1, I just can’t quite put my finger on it!

    How many have you been to, Jeanne?!

  2. Ooops, the tallest should be in Kuala Lumpur (the second terminal or known as KLIA2) with the height of 141.9 meters, above sea level

  3. You forgot Changi Airport’s control tower, which is 80m tall!

  4. Denver and Salt Lake City are both at 100m

  5. Looks like this Liste is not very accurate, as previous posters pointed out. Want to add that Düsseldorf’s (DUS) tower is 85m tall, and it exists since before 2002.
    Maybe check your sources a little bit better next time.

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