Madeira X Evolution
Aerosoft GmbH 2017
20 21
English
Airport Description
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, 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 passen-
gers.
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 construc-
tion company Andrade Gutierrez, and is recognized worldwide as one
of the most difficult to achieve due to the type of terrain and orogra-
phy.
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.
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) by
the IABSE.
The History Channel program “Most Extreme Airports” ranked it as
the 9
th
most dangerous airport in the world, and the third most
dangerous in Europe after Gibraltar International Airport and Courch-
evel Altiport.
Technical data Madeira
ICAO Code LPMA
IATA Code FUN
Elevation 44 m / 146 feet
Coordinates 32° 41‘ 07“ N / 016° 46‘ 7“ E
Runways 05/23 2631m x 45m
Frequencies
Approach: MADEIRA APPROACH 119.600
Tower: MADEIRA TOWER 118.350
ATIS: MADEIRA ATIS 124.400
Navigation and landing aids
VOR 112.200 FUN
NDB 318 MAD