Congonhas–Deputado Freitas Nobre Airport — São Paulo, Brazil

Few urban airports anywhere sit as deep inside their host city as Congonhas (CGH), whose single short runway lies only a handful of kilometers from downtown São Paulo, surrounded on nearly every side by dense apartment blocks and elevated highways. For decades it has anchored the ponte aérea, the frequent air bridge connecting São Paulo's business travelers to Rio de Janeiro, a shuttle service so routine that many passengers book seats with barely more planning than catching a bus. The airport's tight urban confines came into tragic focus in 2007, when a landing accident on the rain-slicked runway became one of the deadliest disasters in Brazilian aviation history and prompted lasting changes to runway grooving and approach procedures nationwide. Congonhas today carries the added name of Deputado Freitas Nobre, honoring a journalist and legislator, and continues to handle a heavy schedule of domestic flights despite its constrained footprint, making it one of the busiest airports in South America by movements even though it lacks room for major expansion.