Madeira visit in November

Madeira Airport (Aeroporto da Madeira - IATA: FNC, ICAO: LPMA) is the international airport in the civil parish of Santa Cruz in the Portuguese archipelago and autonomous region of Madeira. The airport is located 13,2 km east-northeast of the regional capital, Funchal, after which it is sometimes informally named. The airport is mostly known for the windy and spectacular approaches. 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 football player Cristiano Ronaldo. 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 snaking around in a 150° turn before lining up on a very short final approach. The airport's 05 end of the runway ends with a cliff with a motorway leading to the airport terminal below it. The runway 23 end of the runway is very interesting as it sits on a supported platform above ground as the ground below it is very far down. This time the approach path to runway 23 is more or less clear, meaning that ILS is available for approach.

The thirteenth visit to Madeira in 20 years was on the agenda this year. Originally planned for April, but postponed in November due to the corona pandemic. The traffic a bit less as usual, but still nice visitors on the special one airport in the atlantic ocean.

All photos are Copyright by Rogosz Photography