| Madeira Funchal Airport Aeroporto da Madeira |
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| IATA: FNC – ICAO: LPMA | |||
| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Public | ||
| Operator | Aeroportos da Madeira | ||
| Location | Santa Catarina, Santa Cruz | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 192 ft / 59 m | ||
| Coordinates | |||
| Website | |||
| Map | |||
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FNC
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| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| m | ft | ||
| 05/23 | 2,781 | 9,110 | Asphalt |
| Statistics (2010) | |||
| Aircraft Movements | 22,094 | ||
| Passengers | 2,233,524 | ||
| Source: Portuguese AIP at EUROCONTROL[1] | |||
Madeira Airport (IATA: FNC, ICAO: LPMA), (informally known as Funchal Airport, and formerly known as Santa Catarina Airport), is an international airport located near Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. The airport controls national and international air traffic of the island of Madeira. It was first opened on 18 July 1964 with two 1,600-metre (5,249 ft) runways.
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. The original runway was only 1,600 metres (5,249 ft) in length, but was extended by 200 metres (660 ft) 8 years after the TAP Portugal Flight TP425 incident of 1977 and subsequently rebuilt in 2000, almost doubling the size of the runway, building it out over the ocean. Instead of using landfill, the extension was built on a series of 180 columns, each about 70 metres (230 ft) tall. This airport is also considered the Kai Tak of Europe because of its singular approach to runway 05.[2] For the enlargement of the new runway the Funchal Airport has won the Outstanding Structures Award [3], given by International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE). The Outstanding Structures Award is considered to be the "Oscar" for engineering structures worldwide.[4] The History Channel program Most Extreme Airports, ranks it as the 9th most dangerous airport in the world, and the second most dangerous in Europe after Gibraltar Airport.[5]
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Madeira Airport was officially opened on 18 July 1964. The first flight ever to land here 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, as modern larger aircraft could not land on it. Decisions had to be made to find out where the best place for a runway would be, and they decided that the area where the short runway was, was the best place to extend it, so they had to somehow extend the runway. 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 to total 1,800 metres (5,900 ft), and also four gates were opened.
In 2000, the runway had once again been extended, and it opened on 15 September.
The airport has a single terminal which opened in 1973. The terminal has 40 check-in desks, 16 boarding gates and 7 baggage belts. There are no air-bridges so passengers either walk the short distance to the terminal or are taken by shuttle bus. The terminal itself is mostly underground.
The work of extension of Madeira Airport conducted by the Brazilian construction company Andrade Gutierrez, is a work recognised worldwide as one of the most difficult to achieve due to the type of terrain and orography. In 2004, Dr Manabu Ito, President of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE) presented in Shanghai, China, the award for 2004 IABSE Outstanding Structure Award which is given only to great works of engineering recognised worldwide.
Note: † denotes charter airlines and their destinations.
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Aigle Azur | Paris-Orly |
| Air Berlin | Berlin-Tegel, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Munich, Nuremberg, Zürich Seasonal: Hamburg, Leipzig/Halle |
| Air Finland | Seasonal: Helsinki |
| Arkefly | Seasonal: Amsterdam |
| Austrian Airlines | Seasonal: Vienna |
| Austrian operated by Lauda Air | Seasonal: Vienna |
| Binter Canarias | Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Seasonal: Tenerife-North |
| Cimber Sterling | Seasonal: Copenhagen |
| Condor | Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Paderborn/Lippstadt, Munich |
| EasyJet | Bristol, Lisbon, London-Gatwick |
| Edelweiss Air | Seasonal: Zürich [begins 27 May 2012] |
| Europe Airpost | Montpellier, Paris-Charles de Gaulle |
| Finnair | Seasonal: Helsinki |
| Germania | Bremen, Friedrichshafen, Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden[6] |
| Iberia operated by Air Nostrum | Seasonal: Bilbao, Valencia, Oviedo[7] |
| Jet2 | Leeds/Bradford, Manchester |
| Jetairfly | Seasonal: Brussels |
| Luxair | Luxembourg |
| Niki | Seasonal: Graz, Linz, Vienna |
| Neos | Milan-Malpensa |
| Norwegian Air Shuttle | Oslo-Gardermoen |
| SATA Air Açores | Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Porto Santo, Tenerife-South |
| SATA International | Copenhagen, Dublin, Lisbon, Paris-Orly, Ponta Delgada, Porto, Zürich Seasonal: Billund (from January 2012), Madrid, Oslo-Gardermoen, Stockholm-Arlanda, Faro |
| TAP Portugal | Caracas, Lisbon, London-Gatwick, London-Heathrow, Porto Seasonal: Madrid, Barcelona[8] |
| TAP operated by Portugália | Lisbon |
| Thomas Cook Airlines | Manchester Seasonal: Glasgow-International, London-Gatwick |
| Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium | Brussels |
| Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia | Seasonal: Billund, Copenhagen, Helsinki |
| Thomson Airways | Birmingham, Nottingham East Midlands, Exeter, Glasgow-International, London-Gatwick, Manchester Seasonal: Bournemouth, London-Luton, Newcastle-upon-Tyne |
| Transaero | Seasonal: Moscow-Domodedovo |
| Transavia | Amsterdam |
| Transavia France | Paris-Orly, Porto, Nantes |
| Travel Service † | Prague, Warsaw |
| TUIfly | Seasonal: Cologne/Bonn, Frankfurt, Hanover, Stuttgart |
| Ukraine International Airlines † | Kyiv-Boryspil |
Madeira Airport finished sixth in 2010 in a poll by PrivateFly.com to find the world's best airport approaches.[9]
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