Madeira Airport
Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport Aeroporto Internacional da Madeira Cristiano Ronaldo | |||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||
| Owner | Vinci Group | ||||||||||
| Operator | ANA Aeroportos de Portugal | ||||||||||
| Serves | Madeira, Portugal | ||||||||||
| Location | Santa Cruz | ||||||||||
| Opened | 7 July 1964 | ||||||||||
| Focus city for | TAP Air Portugal | ||||||||||
| Operating base for | Ryanair | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 58 m / 190 ft | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 32°41′39″N 16°46′41″W / 32.69417°N 16.77806°W | ||||||||||
| Website | aeroportomadeira.pt | ||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||
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| Statistics (2024) | |||||||||||
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Source: VINCI Airports | |||||||||||
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Madeira Airport (Portuguese: Aeroporto da Madeira) (IATA: FNC, ICAO: LPMA), informally Funchal Airport (Aeroporto do Funchal), formerly Santa Catarina Airport (Aeroporto de Santa Catarina) and officially Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport, is an 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 (8.2 mi) east-northeast of the regional capital, Funchal, after which it is sometimes informally named. 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, although in January 2025 it had surpassed Faro. The airport is named after footballer and Madeiran native Cristiano Ronaldo. During its renaming ceremony in 2017, the airport drew media notoriety for an infamous bust of Ronaldo unveiled at the ceremony, now replaced.
The airport is considered one of the most peculiarly perilous airports in the world due to its location and its spectacular runway construction. It received the Outstanding Structure Award in 2004 from the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering. The History Channel programme Most Extreme Airports ranked it as the ninth most dangerous airport in the world and the third most dangerous in Europe. Pilots must undergo additional training to land at the airport.