Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport

Cristiano Ronaldo Madeira International Airport, also known as Madeira Airport, or Funchal 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 13.2km east-northeast of the regional capital Funchal after which it is sometimes informally named. It mostly hosts flights to European metropolitan destinations due to the importance of Madeira 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 considered one of the most peculiarly perilous airports in the world due to its location and its spectacular runway construction. The History Channel program Most Extreme Airports ranked it as the ninth most dangerous airport in the world, and the third most dangerous in Europe.HistoryMadeira Airport was officially opened on 18 July 1964, with two 1600m 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. The runway was extended to 1,800 metres, with the inauguration of the extension occurring on 1 February 1986 by the then President of the Portuguese Republic António Ramalho Eanes. In the meantime, a brand new terminal was built at the airport in 1973, handling 500,000 passengers.