Madeira Airport

This is an interesting airport named after Cristiano Ronaldo.

There’s a viewing gallery where passengers can see their plane arriving.

The runway is supported at the northern end by hundreds of sturdy concrete pillars. There is a sheer drop at both ends of the runway so planes really do have to take off.

Landing is another matter. Because of the close proximity of the mountains to the west and the sea on the other sides, there can be quite gusty winds around even on a sunny day.

My flight from Lisbon with Easyjet was without turbulence but the pilot did warn us there were strong gusts at the airport. As we approached the plane did move around a bit but everything seemed OK until we landed and then immediately took off again.

A warning indicator about excessive tailwinds had apparently been triggered and so we circled back over Porto Santo and had another attempt at landing, this time successfully. This is not an uncommon occurrence.

People told me subsequently that sometimes planes can’t land and have to return to Lisbon or land at Porto Santo instead.