Madeira Airport
Madeira Airport
Madeira International Airport
Cristiano Ronaldo CR7, commonly known as Madeira Airport (Portuguese: Aeroporto
da Madeira), or Funchal Airport (Aeroporto do Funchal) (IATA: FNC, ICAO: LPMA),
is an international airport in the civil parish of Santa Cruz in the Portuguese
archipelago and autonomous region of Madeira. The airport is located 13.2 km
(8.2 mi) east-northeast of the regional capital Funchal after which it is
sometimes informally named. It mostly hosts flights to European metropolitan
destinations due to the importance of Madeira as a leisure destination, and is
pivotal in the movement of cargo in and out of the archipelago of Madeira. It
is the fourth busiest airport in Portugal. The airport is named after Madeiran
football player Cristiano Ronaldo.
The airport is considered one of
the most peculiarly perilous airports in the world due to its location and its
spectacular runway construction. It received the Outstanding Structure Award in
2004 by the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering.
The History Channel program Most Extreme Airports ranked it as the ninth most
dangerous airport in the world, and the third most dangerous in Europe. Pilots
must undergo additional training to land at the airport.
History
Madeira Airport was officially
opened on 24 July 1972, with two 1,600 m (5,249 ft) runways. The first flight
ever to land was a TAP Air Portugal Lockheed Constellation with 80 passengers
on board.
In 1972, the popularity of
visiting the island of Madeira increased, so the runway had to be extended to
allow modern and larger aircraft to land. Considered the Kai Tak of Europe
because of its singular approach to runway 05, the decision was made to extend
the existing runway, instead of building a new one. The runway was extended to
1,800 metres, with the inauguration of the extension occurring on 1 February
1986 by the then President of the Portuguese Republic António Ramalho Eanes. In
the meantime, a brand new terminal was built at the airport in 1973, handling
500,000 passengers.
However, as demand for tourism
continued to grow, the runway had to be extended further. The newly extended
runway - now 2781 metres in length - and terminal were inaugurated on 6 October
2002, and to mark the occasion, an Air Atlanta Icelandic Boeing 747-200,
registration TF-ABA, landed at the airport. Although this was a rare event,
some TAP Air Portugal flights currently make scheduled stops at Madeira with
Airbus A330-200 widebody aircraft on the Lisbon-Caracas-Lisbon route.
Facilities
Madeira Airport Runway, View of
the airport from Machico, Partial view of the airport's main building
Main check-in desks hall, Airport
tower, Under the airport runway
Other view of under the airport
runway which is crossed by the main road of the Island
Runway
The airport was once infamous for
its short runway which, surrounded by high mountains and the ocean, made it a
tricky landing for even the most experienced of pilots. Between 1982 and 1986,
Madeira's runway was successfully extended by 200 m (656 ft) to a total of
1,800 m (5,906 ft), and also four gates were opened. The original runway was
only 1,600 m (5,249 ft) long, but was extended by 200 m (656 ft) 8 years after
the TAP Air Portugal Flight 425 crash of 1977.
In 2000, the runway was again
extended this time to 2,781 m (9,124 ft). As landfill was not a realistic
option, the extension was built on a platform, partly over the ocean, supported
by 180 columns, each about 70 m (230 ft) tall. The extension of Madeira Airport
was conducted by the Brazilian construction company Andrade Gutierrez, and is
recognized worldwide as one of the most difficult to achieve due to the type of
terrain and orography.
Its innovative solution allowed
Funchal to receive the Outstanding Structure Award in 2004 by the International
Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering, which aims at recognizing
the most remarkable, innovative, creative or otherwise stimulating structure
completed within the last few years.
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