Madeira Airport

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Madeira Airport
Aeroporto da Madeira
Aeroporto da Madeira runway.JPG
IATA: FNC – ICAO: LPMA
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator Aeroportos da Madeira
Serves Funchal/Madeira Island
Location Santa Catarina, Santa Cruz
Elevation AMSL 58 m / 190 ft
Coordinates Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Website ana.pt
Map
LPMA is located in Madeira
LPMA
LPMA
Location in Portugal
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
05/23 2,781 9,124 Asphalt
Statistics (2011 / 2014)
Aircraft movements 21,346
Passengers 2,459,793[1][2]
Source: Portuguese AIP

Madeira Airport (IATA: FNC, ICAO: LPMA), formerly known as Santa Catarina Airport and 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,[3] which aims at recognizing the most remarkable, innovative, creative or otherwise stimulating structure completed within the last few years.[4] Nevertheless, it is still considered one of the most peculiarly perilous airports in the world.[5]

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 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,[6] 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.[7] 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.

In 2004, Dr. Manabu Ito, President of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE), presented the IABSE Outstanding Structure Award in Shanghai: the enlargement of the new runway at Funchal Airport won the 2004 Outstanding Structure Award (considered the Oscars of worldwide structural engineering)[8] by the IABSE.[9]

The History Channel program Most Extreme Airports ranked it as the 9th most dangerous airport in the world, and the third most dangerous in Europe after Gibraltar International Airport and Courchevel Altiport.[10]

Madeira Airport Runway

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.

Terminal

View of the airport from Machico
Partial view of the airport's main building
Main check-in desks hall
Airport tower

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.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Airlines Destinations
Aero VIP Porto Santo
Aigle Azur Paris–Orly
Air Berlin Berlin–Tegel, Cologne/Bonn, Düsseldorf, Leipzig/Halle, Munich
Seasonal: Nuremberg
ASL Airlines France Montpellier, Paris–Charles de Gaulle
ASL Airlines Ireland Seasonal charter: Dublin[11]
Austrian Airlines Seasonal: Vienna
Azores Airlines Gran Canaria, Ponta Delgada
Seasonal: Faro
Seasonal charter: Boston (begins 28 December 2016)[12]
British Airways London–Gatwick
Binter Canarias Gran Canaria, Tenerife–South
Condor Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzig/Halle, Munich, Stuttgart
Corendon Airlines Seasonal: Amsterdam[13][14]
easyJet Bristol, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London–Gatwick, Manchester, Porto
Edelweiss Air Zürich
Enter Air Seasonal: Gdańsk, Wrocław, Paris–Charles de Gaulle, Poznań[15]
Finnair Helsinki[16][17]
Germania[18][19] Bremen, Dresden, Erfurt-Weimar, Friedrichshafen, Hamburg, Nuremberg Münster-Osnabrück
Iberia
operated by Air Nostrum		 Seasonal: Bilbao, Madrid
Jet2.com East Midlands, Glasgow, Leeds/Bradford, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne[20]
Jetairfly Brussels[21]
Lufthansa Frankfurt (begins 5 November 2016)[22]
Luxair Luxembourg
Monarch Airlines Birmingham, London–Gatwick, Manchester
Niki Seasonal: Vienna
Neos Milan–Malpensa
Norwegian Air Shuttle Seasonal: Copenhagen, Oslo–Gardermoen, London–Gatwick
Primera Air
TAP Portugal		 Charter: Göteborg, Oulu
Scandinavian Airlines Charter: Stockholm–Arlanda
Small Planet Airlines Seasonal: Vilnius
SmartWings
operated by Travel Service Airlines[23]		 Seasonal: Prague[24]
TAP Portugal Lisbon, Porto
Thomas Cook Airlines Manchester
Seasonal: Glasgow, London–Gatwick, Porto Santo
Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium Brussels
Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia Seasonal: Copenhagen, Helsinki
Thomson Airways Birmingham, Exeter, Glasgow, London–Gatwick, Manchester
Seasonal: Bournemouth, London–Luton, Newcastle upon Tyne, Nottingham/East Midlands
Transavia Amsterdam
Transavia France Lyon, Porto
Seasonal: Paris–Orly, Nantes
Travel Service Airlines Charter: Prague, Strasbourg
Travel Service Polska Charter: Katowice, Warsaw–Chopin, Wrocław
TUI Airlines Netherlands Seasonal: Amsterdam
TUIfly Seasonal: Basel/Mulhouse, Cologne/Bonn, Frankfurt, Hanover, Munich, Stuttgart
Ukraine International Airlines Charter: Kiev–Boryspil
Volotea Charter: Nantes, Beauvais, Clermont–Ferrand, Dijon, Perpignan, Marseille, Saint–Etienne[25]
Vueling Seasonal: Barcelona[26]
White Airways Charter: Lyon, Nantes, Paris–Charles Gaulle, São Vicente

Busiest routes

Busiest routes from Madeira Airport (2010)[27]
Rank Country City Passengers Carriers
1  Portugal Lisbon 865,994 EasyJet, Portugália Airlines, TAP Portugal
2  United Kingdom London 227,096 EasyJet, Monarch Airlines, TAP Portugal, Thomas Cook Airlines, Thomson Airways, British Airways, Norwegian Air Shuttle
3  Portugal Porto 218,992 TAP Portugal, Transavia
4  United Kingdom Manchester 59,367 EasyJet, Jet2.com, Thomas Cook Airlines, Thomson Airways
5  Portugal Porto Santo 47,684 Aero Vip
6  Netherlands Amsterdam 44,270 Arkefly, Transavia
7  France Paris 41,794 Aigle Azur, Europe Airpost, SATA Internacional, Transavia France
8  Finland Helsinki 39,284 Air Finland, Finnair, Thomas Cook Airlines, Scandinavian
9  United Kingdom Bristol 38,201 EasyJet
10  Germany Düsseldorf 37,626 Air Berlin

Accidents and incidents

File:HB-ICK.jpg
SA de Transport Aérien Sud Caravelle 10R (HB-ICK) hauling from Geneva (two years before its accident at Funchal)
  • On 5 March 1973, an Aviaco Sud Caravelle 10R (Registration EC-BID) crashed into the sea during the landing approach, losing the aircraft and three crew.[28]
  • On 19 November 1977, TAP Portugal Flight TP425, a Boeing 727-200 (Registration CS-TBR) was traveling 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 crashed hard onto a beach. A fire then broke out, setting the aircraft alight. Out of the 164 on board, 131 lost their lives.[29]
  • 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 ft (220 m) causing the aircraft to crash into the sea. 36 people died out of the 57 on board.[30]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.ana.pt/en-US/Topo/institucional/aboutANA/News/News/Pages/Madeira-Airport-with-record-passenger-numbers-in-2014.aspx?fromlist=1
  2. ↑ http://www.vinci-airports.com/en/news/madeira-airport-record-passenger-numbers-2014
  3. ↑ http://www.iabse.org/IABSE/association/Organisation_files/Outstanding_Structure_Award/Funchal_Airport_Extension__Madeira_Island__Portugal_.aspx
  4. ↑ http://www.iabse.org/IABSE/association/Award_files/Outstanding_Structure_Award/OStrA.aspx
  5. ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/9002352/The-worlds-scariest-airport-landings-videos.html
  6. ↑ 10 Most Dangerous Landing Strips in the World
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Presstur, SATA resumes flights to Boston from Funchal at Reveillon, 26.04.2016, (Portuguese)
  13. ↑ Corendon Airlines, Madeira, Dutch, 21.03.2016
  14. ↑ Corendon Airlines, Fly & Drive, Madeira, Dutch, 21.03.2016
  15. ↑ http://www.publituris.pt/2014/06/16/madeira-com-novos-voos-da-polonia/
  16. ↑ http://worldairlinenews.com/2014/11/17/finnair-announces-new-scheduled-services-to-ho-chi-minh-city-eilat-lanzarote-fuerteventura-and-madeira/
  17. ↑ http://www.finnairgroup.com/mediaen/mediaen_7.html?Id=xml_1751408.html
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Germania Flug Madeira destinations, 15.04.2016
  20. ↑ http://www.anna.aero/2014/07/09/jet2-com-makes-madeira-destination-30-newcastle/
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ https://www.austrianwings.info/2016/05/lufthansa-nonstop-von-frankfurt-nach-madeira/
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Vueling begins flights to Funchal in Portuguese
  27. ↑ Estatística De Tráfego Aéreo 2010 Archived 22 August 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  28. ↑ EC-BID at the Aviation Safety Network
  29. ↑ CS-TBR at the Aviation Safety Network
  30. ↑ HB-ICK at the Aviation Safety Network

External links

Media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. at Wikimedia Commons

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