Airports don’t have to be ugly.
When we go to catch a flight, we’re usually so preoccupied with reaching our destination that we forget to take in the beauty of the airport.
While many airports are soulless, oxygen-free, grey shopping centres with planes attached, there are those that are as beautiful as any sun-drenched beach holiday.
If you happen to pass through any of the airports below, take a good look around you either side of the security barriers.
Below are stunning photos from some of the most beautiful airports in the world.
1. Incheon International Airport, South Korea
it looks like a gigantic steel centipede. On the inside it looks like the kind of place that will transport you to the moon, not another airport.
2. Carrasco International Airport, Uruguay
the Uruguayan capital Montevideo opened a new terminal in 2009 and it looks like the kind of place the Avengers might use as a rental space. Futuristic and fantastic.
3. Munich Airport Germany
terminals are connected by the Munich Airport Center, a glorious space that welcomes in that rare commodity in airports… natural light.
4. Madrid–Barajas Airport, Spain
Terminal 4 at Madrid Airport is a thing of beauty. Designed by Antonio Lamela and Richard Rogers, who came up with the Lloyd’s building and the Millennium Dome in London, it looks like a cross between a Lego fantasy and a late-90s U2 concert.
5. Changi Airport, Singapore
The best airport in the world, according to Skytrax, has a number of themed gardens, one of which contains more than 1,000 butterflies.
6. Denver International Airport, USA
Denver’s tented roof is awe-inspiring, and the airport has quite a story. There are conspiracy theories that its interior is dotted with various Nazi and Satanic symbols, while Luis Jiménez, the sculptor of the colossal Blue Mustang sculpture outside the airport, died when a section of the structure fell on top of him.
7. Marrakesh Menara Airport, Morocco
This airport looks like a giant sugar-coated cake and it hosts four million passengers a year.
8. King Abdulaziz International Airport, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
1981, this airport has its own Hajj terminal to accommodate the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. The terminal can hold 80,000 people at the same time.
9. Bilbao Airport, Spain
Dove’, the space age new terminal was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and opened in 2000. The whole thing does look like it’s about to take off.
10. Barra Airport, Scotland
something completely different. This airport on the island of Barra in the Outer Hebrides is the only one in the world that uses a beach as a runway. The airport, which transports 10,000 passengers a year, celebrated its 100th anniversary last month and its landing and take-off times are dictated by the tides.
11. Wellington International Airport, New Zealand
This airport is best known for its cavernous expanded terminal known as The Rock, which opened in 2010. This lounge area surrounds passengers with imposing wooden panels as they wait for their flights.
12. Chicago O’Hare International Airport, USA
walkway at O’Hare Airport, appropriately called Sky’s The Limit and designed by Canadian artist Michael Hayden, will brighten up any journey.
13. Lyon-Saint-Exupéry Airport, France
is fine, but it’s the hub’s adjacent train station that steals the show, designed by Santiago Calatrava, who also created the new terminal in Bilbao.
14. Queen Alia International Airport, Jordan
A new terminal, designed by British architect Norman Foster’s company, was opened in 2013 and it is stunning, comprising 127 concrete domes.
Abeg where our naija airports dey?