Coronavirus pandemic aside, airports are rarely quiet. Unless you arrive in the dead of night, they are usually teeming with tourists, business travelers and the hundreds of staff members that keep the complex operations ticking over. But imagine rocking up at your local aviation center and finding nobody there. It's an eerie thought but one that could come true should you visit any of these abandoned airports.

Hong Kong's former international airport is an aviation hub no more. Once a handy place to land, right in the center of Hong Kong in the Kowloon area, it was the city's primary airport. But its lifetime was shrouded in complication and disaster. With the rapid growth of Hong Kong in the 1980s and 90s, overcrowding in the airport became a problem and pollution for nearby residents was a huge issue.

But it wasn't just the infrastructure that became a problem for this airport. Kai Tak was notorious for its difficult landings and take-offs. Pilots had to navigate the nearby hills with a sharp turn and often gusts of wind could make planes overshoot the runway. Several aircraft had accidents while coming into land or during take-off at the airport during its 73 years of operation, including the 1993 China Airlines Boeing 747 which overshot the runway during a typhoon and crashed into Victoria Harbour.

Incredibly, there were no fatalities and only minor injuries. But the accident was one of many that led to the closure of the airport in 1998. It was replaced by a larger airport, still in use today, further away from the city's core residential areas. This meant height restrictions on buildings in Kowloon could be lifted and the city grew taller almost by the day.

The old airport is now used as a cruise terminal for up to two 220,000-ton ships a day. The terminal opened in 2013 and usually sees more than 730,000 passengers pass through it each year, a fraction of the close to 30 million people that used to travel through the airport when it was here. 

Serving Denver, the capital of Colorado, Stapleton International was once a major airport for the western USA. Frontier and United Airlines both operated out of the hub during its 66-year tenure, as well as now-defunct carriers such as Continental and Denver's own Rocky Mountain Airways.

With six runways and five terminals, it was a serious operation with over 1,200 employees. But it wasn't quite big enough. Stapleton was growing and the demand for air traffic was increasing, but the airport simply couldn't keep up.

In 1995, all traffic ceased and was instead routed via Denver International Airport – the main transport hub for the state today. Now, you won't see many traces of the airport that once was.

After a storm in 1997 damaged many of the airport buildings, leaving well over 4,000 holes in the rooftops, the vast majority of it was torn down. Today, the most recognizable lasting feature is the old air traffic control tower which is now used as a bowling alley and restaurant. The land around it has been redeveloped as a residential area.

This airport in eastern Ukraine didn't struggle to serve its market but has a rather somber story. The shiny façade of Sergey Prokofiev International Airport in Donetsk is no longer as attractive as it once was, after this airport was the scene of two horrific battles during 2014 and 2015.

The airport was built ahead of the Euro 2012 football tournament and cost an estimated $860 million. Until a devastating outbreak of violence within the airport between separatist insurgents from the Donetsk People's Republic and the Ukrainian armed forces, Donetsk Airport had been a hub for around 1.1 million travelers in the previous year.

Civilian airlines serving passengers included Lufthansa, LOT Polish Airlines, Air Berlin, Aeroflot and flydubai. But all carriers had to cease operations in 2014 when the War in Donbass broke out.

The airport became a battleground in May 2014 for one day and again in September, after which a three-month battled raged until Ukrainian forces finally withdrew. It has left the building pockmarked with bullet holes and crumbling. Its former terminals and lounges were completely ruined.

Ciudad Real Central Airport in central Spain opened in 2008 to much fanfare but the massive infrastructure project, which cost an eye-watering $1.3 billion, was doomed from the get-go. Stuck in the middle of nowhere, the airport's completion coincided with the global financial crisis of 2008 and resulting recession, and the hub failed to attract enough airlines to make it profitable.

Vueling, the last airline to operate scheduled flights to and from the airport, pulled out in 2011. A year later, the private airport went bankrupt and closed.

The airport, that was poised to welcome as many as 10 million passengers a year, was effectively abandoned in 2012. Its main building, single runway and nearby visitor center have remained empty ever since.

Elsewhere in the airport, there's a partially completed walkway which was supposed to connect the airport to a train station on the Madrid-Seville high-speed rail line. Construction ceased when the airport closed. A large parking lot (pictured) also remains completely abandoned.

Luckily, things are looking up for the ill-fated ghost airport. After changing ownership a couple of times in the last few years and a halted attempt at rebranding as Madrid Airport South, the current owners are looking into using the space for tech support and flight training.

Athens' Ellinikon International Airport was originally built in 1938 and was the Greek capital's main airport for decades. It was closed in 2001 to make way for the new Athens International Airport.

The airport was partly re-purposed as a venue for the Athens Olympic Games in 2004. The northwestern section of the site was used for field hockey, baseball and more. One of the airport's hangars was even revamped to host various fencing events and basketball games.

Since the Olympics, the former airport has all been left to rack and ruin. An ambitious project to convert it into a municipal park was in the pipeline but was canned following the Greek debt crisis that pretty much bankrupted the country.

After briefly serving as a makeshift refugee camp, the site has now been leased to a gambling development company. It intends to build a tourist resort complex, including hotels, offices, casino, a yachting marina and luxury homes inside the abandoned airport at a cost of $9.3 billion. Work on demolishing the old airport buildings began in July 2020.

This major international airport near the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip was completed with funding from the international community. The opening ceremony in 1998 was attended by the then-US President Bill Clinton.

The airport, which was named in honor of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, was able to handle as many as 700,000 passengers a year. But the airport closed just a few years later in 2001, during the Second Intifada.

An Israeli bombing campaign severely damaged the air traffic control tower, the runway and the state-of-the-art terminal building. Soon after, Israeli bulldozers moved in and destroyed much of what was left.

Now a complete wreck, the airport has been totally abandoned and proposals to rebuild the hub have been vetoed by the Israeli authorities. Take a look at more haunting photos of the world's abandoned places here.

Today, Nicosia International is trapped in a 1970s time warp but it was once the principal airport of Cyprus, welcoming hundreds of thousands of tourists a year to the island's beautiful, sun-soaked beaches. But its story also has a tinge of tragedy.

In 1974, Turkey invaded Cyprus and the country's international airport. It became the scene of fierce fighting between Turkish and Cypriot forces, and was heavily bombed.

The airport was declared a United Nations Protected Area (UNPA) during the conflict and found itself within the UN-controlled buffer zone once hostilities had ceased.

Situated in a no-man's land between the Republic of Cyprus and the self-declared state of Northern Cyprus, the airport has remained largely untouched since the conflict.

These days, the site is used as a headquarters for the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus but much of the former terminal building and its contents still exist, including signage and seating. While the future of the airport is uncertain, plans have been floated to re-open it under UN control and even transform the site into a special tax-free industrial zone.

Now take a look at these stunning photos of the world's abandoned castles