The Longest Runways in the US: The Top 20, Ranked From FAA Records

The longest runway in the US is Runway 16R/34L at Denver International Airport, at 16,000 feet (4,877 m), or just over 3 miles. No other paved runway in the country reaches 15,100 feet.

Behind Denver come three runways built for test flying and spaceflight: Edwards Air Force Base, the former Space Shuttle runway at Kennedy Space Center, and Vandenberg Space Force Base. Las Vegas, New York’s JFK and Albuquerque are the only other airline airports in the top 10.

We ranked every runway by its physical length in the FAA’s airport records, effective October 1, 2026. Each airport appears once, under its longest paved runway. Dry lakebeds and seaplane water lanes are left out, and the lakebed case gets its own section below.

1. Denver International Airport: 16,000 feet

Denver’s Runway 16R/34L opened in September 2003 and is 4,000 feet longer than any of the airport’s other five runways. Each of those five measures 12,000 feet.

The reason is altitude. The airport sits at 5,434 feet above sea level, and thin, hot summer air robs engines of thrust and wings of lift. The extra length lets a fully loaded Airbus A380 or Boeing 747-8 take off in those conditions.

Denver is also the biggest airport in North America by land area, at 33,531 acres (52.4 square miles). We cover that ranking in our guide to the biggest airports in the US.

2. Edwards Air Force Base, California: 15,024 feet

The main runway at Edwards, 5R/23L, is 15,024 feet long and 300 feet wide. It is the longest paved military runway in the country, and the center of US Air Force flight testing, shared with NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center.

The paved figure undersells it. The runway ends at the edge of Rogers Dry Lake, which continues as an unpaved overrun of more than 9,000 feet, so a test pilot in trouble has more than 24,000 feet of usable surface ahead.

Rogers Dry Lake has eight official runways in all. Columbia landed at Edwards at the end of the first Space Shuttle flight in 1981, and the base was the shuttle’s primary landing site until 1991, still taking landings as late as 2009.

3. Kennedy Space Center Launch and Landing Facility, Florida: 15,001 feet

Kennedy’s former Shuttle Landing Facility is 15,001 feet long in the FAA record and 300 feet wide. It also has a paved overrun of about 1,000 feet at each end, and the concrete is 16 inches (40.6 cm) thick at the center.

The runway opened in 1976 and took its first shuttle landing in February 1984. It ended the program too: Atlantis touched down there on July 21, 2011, the 78th shuttle landing at Kennedy.

Since 2015, Space Florida has run it under a 30-year lease from NASA as the Launch and Landing Facility. It now hosts the X-37B uncrewed spaceplane, commercial flights and high-speed vehicle testing.

4. Vandenberg Space Force Base, California: 15,000 feet

Vandenberg’s Runway 12/30 is a monument to a shuttle program that never flew. The Air Force lengthened it to 15,000 feet in the 1980s so orbiters launched from Space Launch Complex 6 could land back on the California coast.

The first West Coast launch was set for October 1986, but the Challenger disaster grounded the fleet that January. The Vandenberg shuttle program was formally ended in December 1989, and no shuttle ever landed on the runway.

5. Harry Reid International Airport, Las Vegas: 14,835 feet

Las Vegas Runway 8L/26R is 14,835 feet long, the second-longest runway at any US airline airport after Denver. The airport sits at 2,181 feet in the desert, where summer heat thins the air and lengthens takeoff runs.

The runway carried a different name until August 2017. A 4-degree shift in the Earth’s magnetic field forced the FAA to renumber 7L/25R as 8L/26R, because runway numbers follow the magnetic compass heading.

6. Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska: 14,530 feet

Eielson’s Runway 14/32 is 14,530 feet long, about 26 miles (42 km) southeast of Fairbanks. It is the longest runway in Alaska, and its crews keep it clear of snow through a subarctic winter.

The base is home to the 354th Fighter Wing and its F-35A fighters, and it hosts the Red Flag-Alaska training exercises for US and allied air forces.

7. John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York: 14,511 feet

JFK’s Bay Runway, 13R/31L, is the longest runway at any East Coast airline airport, at 14,511 feet in the current FAA record. Only Kennedy Space Center’s runway is longer on the Atlantic side of the country.

The Port Authority rebuilt it in 2010, closing it on March 1 and reopening it on June 28. Crews laid an 18-inch (457 mm) concrete surface in place of asphalt and widened the runway to 200 feet.

8. Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada: 14,001 feet

Fallon’s Runway 13R/31L is 14,001 feet long, longer than any other Navy runway in our top 20. The base has been home to TOPGUN, the Navy’s fighter weapons school, since it moved from Miramar in 1996.

Around the field lie 240,000 acres of bombing and electronic warfare ranges, which make Fallon the Navy’s main training ground for air combat and strike missions.

9. Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington: 13,899 feet

Fairchild has just one runway, 13,899 feet long, about 12 miles (20 km) southwest of Spokane. It serves the 92nd Air Refueling Wing and is the Air Force’s largest KC-135 Stratotanker base, with 63 aircraft assigned.

10. Albuquerque International Sunport, New Mexico: 13,793 feet

Albuquerque’s Runway 8/26 is 13,793 feet long, and like Denver it is long for a reason: the airport sits at 5,355 feet. The Sunport shares its runways with Kirtland Air Force Base, which also provides its rescue and firefighting service.

Numbers 11 to 20: the 13,500-foot club

Below the top 10, the list packs tight. Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson is 11th at 13,645 feet, with more than 4,000 military aircraft parked beside it in the Air Force’s storage yard, the boneyard.

Biggs Army Airfield at Fort Bliss is 12th at 13,554 feet, and Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho is 13th at 13,510 feet. After that, eight airports sit within 3 feet of 13,500 feet, so ties share their rank.

That group mixes Navy and Air Force bases with Amarillo and Colorado Springs, two airline airports, plus Grant County International at Moses Lake. It also holds two oddities: an Oklahoma spaceport and Glasgow Industrial Airport, a privately owned 13,500-foot strip in rural Montana.

The longest runways at US airline airports

Most searchers mean the airports they can actually fly from. Among airline airports, Denver leads at 16,000 feet, followed by Las Vegas at 14,835 feet and JFK at 14,511 feet.

Next come Albuquerque at 13,793 feet, Amarillo at 13,502 feet and Colorado Springs at 13,500 feet. Dallas Fort Worth International rounds out the group, with four runways between 13,400 and 13,401 feet long.

For what a typical airliner actually needs, see our guide to how long a runway is.

Why other lists put Victorville second

Many rankings, including our own earlier version of this page, list Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville as the second-longest runway in the US. That figure is out of date.

Runway 17/35 at the former George Air Force Base was extended to 15,050 feet around 2000. The FAA now lists it at 13,052 feet, which drops Victorville outside the top 25.

Two other figures circulate for the same reason. Older lists give Las Vegas 14,515 feet, which matches the FAA’s takeoff run available in one direction, not the runway’s physical length. Coverage of JFK’s 2010 rebuild gave 14,572 feet, while today’s FAA record says 14,511.

How US runways compare with the world

Denver’s runway ranks among the longest paved runways anywhere. Wikipedia’s list of the world’s longest runways puts four paved runways ahead of it, led by Shigatse Peace Airport in Tibet and Ulyanovsk Vostochny in Russia at 16,404 feet (5,000 m) each.

The full global ranking, with every airport over 13,000 feet, is on our page of the world’s longest runways.