Funchal Airport

So we've just been away to Madeira for a week.

Madeira is a beautiful Portuguese island west of Morocco and north of the Canary Islands. Its topography is fantastic - so mountainous! Madeira is not a popular destination of choice for people my age (24) as it is lacking in night-life and activities associated with young people. But it seems to be very popular with older holiday makers. I don't think it matters how old you are; you just have to enjoy walking!

The first thing you'll notice about Madeira, if you fly there, is the airport east of the capital, Funchal. As I've said above, the island is almost totally mountainous and so finding enough space for a flat stretch of land even to accommodate a runway has proved tricky! The location selected for the airport is literally on the coast and the runway used to be quite infamous as it was very short indeed (1,600m / 5,249ft). Following a tragic incident 1977 where a plane pretty much ran out of runway and tumbled off the end at speed, hit a bridge, crashed on the beach and burst into flames, the runway was extended by 200m / 660ft. As shown in the photo, the runway is held up on stilts and amazingly there is loads of stuff underneath the runway, including a main road and sports facilities.

We approached the airport from the east and did a sharp turn to line up with the runway without having to come too close to the mountains. Our pilot did an excellent job and touched down with no problems, and certainly didn't run out of runway! Landing at Madeira's airport is not quite the hair-raising experience that it used to be but it is still not a good one for pilots to start on, or for people who fear flying to touch down at!