The most turbulent airports and flight routes of 2024 have been revealed – and it’s not good news if you’ve got a flight booked in South America.
The rankings have been drawn up by turbulence forecast website turbli.com, which analysed around 10,000 short and long-haul routes connecting the 550 largest airports in the world.
It used ‘eddy dissipation rates’ (EDR) to generate the lists. EDR measures the intensity of turbulence at a given spot – 0-20 is light, 20-40 is moderate, 40-80 severe, and 80-100 is extreme. For each airport, the average turbulence was computed over a volume of around 120 miles (200km) in diameter and 20,000ft (6,000m) in height.
The 121-mile (196km) route from Mendoza International Airport, Argentina, to Santiago in Chile is ranked as the most turbulent in the world, with an average EDR of 24.6. That means moderate turbulence occurs frequently.
The second shakiest is the 660-km (410-mile) route from Córdoba, Argentina, to Santiago (EDR 20), with Mendoza to Salta (also Argentina) coming third (EDR 19).
Another Argentinian route comes fourth (Mendoza to San Carlos de Bariloche), with the first non-South American route in the top 10 coming courtesy of Kathmandu in Nepal to Lhasa in Tibet (fifth), which saves a 128-hour drive around the Himalayas, but has an EDR of 18.8.
The most turbulent North American route is Albuquerque to Denver, Colorado (EDR 17.7/561km), followed by Denver to Jackson Hole Airport in Wyoming (EDR 17.4/653km).
The most turbulent airports and flight routes of 2024 have been revealed – and it’s not good news if you’ve got a flight booked in South America. Santiago Airport (above) is the most turbulent in the world and Mendoza International Airport, Argentina, to Santiago is ranked as the world’s rockiest route
The most jarring European route is Nice, France, to Geneva, Switzerland (EDR 16/299km), while the Oceania route with the highest average turbulence is in New Zealand – Christchurch to Wellington. This is a 304km (188 miles) journey with an EDR of 14. That’s only light turbulence, though.
In second place is Brisbane to Sydney (EDR 14/750km).
Turbli.com reveals that the rockiest long-haul route has an EDR of 15.5 – Nairobi in Kenya to Sepang in Malaysia, 7,223km/4,488 miles away.
The world’s bumpiest airports, meanwhile, are Santiago (No.1/EDR 23), Mendoza (second/EDR 22), Salta in Argentina (third/EDR 20), Kathmandu (fourth/EDR 18.6) and Lhasa (fifth/18.1).
The top 10 American airports for turbulence are Denver (first/EDR 17.2), followed by Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport (second), Albuquerque (third), Salt Lake City (fourth), Jackson (fifth), Las Vegas (sixth), Vancouver (seventh), Reno (eighth), Seattle (ninth) and Boise in Idaho (10th).
Turin in Italy, with an EDR of 16.2, tops the European airports average turbulence ranking, with the rest of the top 10 made up of Milan (second), Geneva (third), Bergamo (fourth), Zurich (fifth), Lyon (sixth), Nice (seventh), Basel (eighth), Barcelona (ninth) and Verona (10th).
Turbli’s reporting is likely to prove increasingly relevant to jet-setters, as global warming has caused an increase in the severity of turbulence, according to scientists.
Research conducted by the University of Reading indicates that turbulence during flights is on the rise, with severe turbulence increasing by 55 per cent since 1979.
The most turbulent North American route is Albuquerque to Denver (above) – and the latter is the rockiest airport in North America, too
Turin airport, above, is the most turbulent in Europe
Christchurch airport is the most turbulent, on average, in Oceania
However, you can console yourself with the knowledge that although turbulence may be uncomfortable and scary, it is extremely unlikely to cause your plane to crash.
As a long-haul Dreamliner captain who spoke to MailOnline stated: ‘In terms of what it might do to you, yes it’s unpleasant, nobody likes being bounced up and down like that, or very few people do, but it’s not unsafe… Aircraft like flying, they don’t like falling out of the sky, and you’ve got to try pretty hard to make them do that.’
What can turbulence do to the airframe?
He said: ‘Nothing. By the time airframe breaks up you’ll be dead anyway.’
He revealed that pilots basically have four options for dealing with turbulence.
He said: ‘You can grin and bear it – the aircraft is more than capable of withstanding the loads associated with turbulence – although severe turbulence can be quite uncomfortable and best avoided for passenger comfort. You can try flying higher – if aircraft performance allows it – or lower – although this burns more fuel and might make things worse.
‘You can fly at the aircraft turbulence penetration speed – generally a little slower than normal cruising speed or turn to avoid the area of turbulence if it’s localised, such as near a thunderstorm.’
