Madeira Airport

International airport in Santa Cruz, Madeira, Portugal

Madeira Airport (Aeroporto da Madeira, ), informally Funchal Airport (Aeroporto do Funchal), formerly Santa Catarina Airport (Aeroporto de Santa Catarina) and officially Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport, is an international airport in the civil parish of Santa Cruz in the Portuguese archipelago and autonomous region of Madeira. The airport is located east northeast of the regional capital, Funchal, after which it is sometimes informally named. It mostly hosts flights to European metropolitan destinations due to Madeira's importance 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 native Cristiano Ronaldo, considered one of the greatest footballers of all time. During its renaming ceremony in 2017, the airport drew media notoriety for an infamous bust of Ronaldo unveiled at the ceremony, now replaced. 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 programme 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.

Madeira Airport is a geographically unusual airport, as it is perched on a foreland jutting out to sea. At the end of runway 05, there lie hills and cliffs which make a direct ILS approach and landing unavailable. Instead aircraft have to do a visual approach which involves flying around the airport, then circling around in a ~180° turn before lining up on a very short final approach. The airport's runway 05/23 is a tabletop runway, which means there are steep dropoffs at either end of the runway at the beginning of Runway 05, the runway drops off just before a motorway that snakes around the runway end, and at the beginning of Runway 23, which drops off a cliff. The runway is also unique in the fact that at the beginning of Runway 23, the runway is placed on a platform supported by pillars, similar to a beam bridge.

Madeira Airport was officially opened on 7 July 1964, with a single runway (06/24). The first flight to land there 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 was extended to allow modern and larger aircraft to land. Considered the Kai Tak of Europe because of its singular approach to runway 06 (now runway 05), the decision was made to extend the existing runway instead of building a new one. The runway was extended to , with the extension inaugurated on 1 February 1986 by then president of the Portuguese Republic António Ramalho Eanes. In the meantime, a new terminal was built at the airport in 1973, handling 500,000 passengers. However, as demand for tourism continued to grow, the runway was extended further. This new extension resulted in the heading of the runway being slightly adjusted and the designation being changed to 05/23. The newly extended runway—now long—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 on the Lisbon Caracas Lisbon route used to have scheduled stops at Madeira with Airbus A330 200 widebody aircraft.

+ Busiest routes from Madeira Airport (2019) Rank City, airport Passengers %change Top carriers 1 Lisbon 1,009,847 1.6% easyJet, TAP Air Portugal 2 Porto 354,823 5.5%easyJet, TAP Air Portugal 3 London Gatwick 260,972 0.2%easyJet, TUI Airways 4 Manchester 102,723 16.8%easyJet, Jet2. com, TUI Airways 5 Frankfurt 95,355 22.6%Condor, Lufthansa, TUI fly Deutschland 6 Amsterdam 84,511 2.6%Corendon Airlines, Transavia, TUI fly Netherlands 7 Düsseldorf 79,713 25.2%Condor, TUI fly Deutschland 8 Paris Orly 79,399 5.4%Transavia 9 Munich 61,975 20.8%Condor, Lufthansa, TUI fly Deutschland 10 London–Stansted 60,524 40%Jet2. com

On 5 March 1973, an Aviaco Sud Caravelle 10R (registration EC BID) crashed into the sea during the landing approach, resulting in the loss of the aircraft and three crew. On 19 November 1977, TAP Air Portugal Flight 425, a Boeing 727 200 (registration CS TBR), was travelling from Brussels to Madeira via Lisbon. After a go around, the aircraft attempted to land in poor weather conditions. It landed long on runway 24 (now runway 23) and plunged over a steep bank. It then struck a stone bridge, and the right wing was torn off, and then it crashed hard onto a beach. A fire broke out, setting the aircraft alight. Out of the 164 on board, 131 lost their lives. On 18 December 1977, SA de Transport Aérien Flight 730, a Sud Caravelle 10R (registration HB ICK), was cleared for approach on runway 06 (now runway 05), but descended below 720 feet (219 m), causing the aircraft to crash into the sea. 36 people died of the 57 on board. On 11 September 2003 a Beechcraft aircraft carrying a UK pilot and nine Spanish passengers crashed into the sea shortly after taking off from the airport. All occupants died.