Gibraltar Airport — Gibraltar, Gibraltar

Gibraltar Airport, known worldwide by the code GIB, occupies one of the most famously improbable sites in commercial aviation, its single runway cutting directly across Winston Churchill Avenue, the main road connecting Gibraltar to the Spanish border. Traffic barriers and lights halt cars and pedestrians whenever an aircraft needs to take off or land, much like a railway level crossing. The airport sits beneath the Rock of Gibraltar, the limestone promontory that made the territory strategically significant for centuries, and pilots approaching GIB must navigate tricky winds funneled by the Rock. Flights connect the British overseas territory primarily to the United Kingdom, given the political sensitivities surrounding Gibraltar's disputed status with neighboring Spain. Limited land forced planners to extend the runway into the bay on reclaimed ground, one of several compromises defining this compact, contested airfield.