Madeira Airport

Madeira Airport (IATA: FNC, ICAO: LPMA), formerly known as Santa Catarina Airportand informally known as Funchal Airport, is an international airport in the civil parish of Santa Catarina, municipality of Santa Cruz, in the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira.

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. 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. Nevertheless, it is still considered one of the most peculiarly perilous airports in the world.

History

Madeira Airport was officially opened on 18 July 1964, with two 1,600 m (5,249 ft) runways. The first flight ever to land was aTAP Air Portugal Lockheed Constellationwith 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. In the meantime, a brand new terminal was built at the airport in 1973, handling 500,000 passengers.

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 Portugal Flight 425 crash of 1977.

In 2000, the runway was again extended this time to 2,781 m (9,124 ft) almost doubling the size of the original runway. 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.

The new runway and terminal were inaugurated on 6 October 2002, and to mark the occasion, an Air-Atlantic Iceland Boeing 747-267B, registration TF-ABA, landed at the airport.Although this was a rare event, some TAP Portugal flights make scheduled stops at Madeira with wide bodied A330-200 aircraft on the Lisbon-Caracas-Lisbon route.,

Geography

Funchal Airport is 13.2 km (8.2 mi) east-northeast of the regional capital Funchal. The airport controls national and international air traffic for the islands of Madeira and Porto Santo.