Porto Santo Airport ( pt, Aeroporto de Porto Santo) is an airport located in

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, the capital of

Porto Santo Island Porto Santo Island () is a Portuguese island northeast of Madeira Island in the North Atlantic Ocean; it is the northernmost and easternmost island of the archipelago of Madeira, located in the Atlantic Ocean west of Europe and Africa. The muni ...

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. The military Maneuver Aerodrome n.° 3 (''Aeródromo de Manobra n.º 3'') or AM3 is co-located within the limits of civilian Porto Santo Airport.

History

The island of Porto Santo was the first of the Madeira Islands to obtain an airport. In 1959,Sinta o ritmo do Aeroporto da Madeira
its runway was built with an initial length of . The first aircraft to land at this airport was a

TAP Air Portugal TAP Air Portugal is the currently state-owned flag carrier airline of Portugal, headquartered at Lisbon Airport which also serves as its hub. TAP – Transportes Aéreos Portugueses – has been a member of the Star Alliance since 2005 and oper ...

Douglas DC-4 The Douglas DC-4 is an American four-engined (piston), propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Military versions of the plane, the C-54 and R5D, served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1960s ...

, on 20 July 1960. The airport's infrastructure has improved over time, with increases to the runway length and in ramp surface. The last improvements to the airport structure were finalized on 28 August 1995, with the inauguration of a new passenger terminal and a new increase in runway length, which then reached . The runway was also re-paved.

Management

Porto Santo Airport is managed by

ANA Aeroportos de Portugal ANA Aeroportos de Portugal is the airport authority of Portugal. The authority manages various airports including Portugal's largest airport, Lisbon Airport. The authority has its head office in Building 120 on the grounds of the airport. History ...

Facilities

The airport has a asphalt/concrete runway, with no ILS equipment as of 2011, but with

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and NDB approaches available.

Military air base

The Maneuver Aerodrome no 3 (AM3) is a

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forward air base which shares its aeronautical facilities with the Porto Santo Airport. The AM3 was created in 2009 by the transformation of the previous Madeira Air Detachment. It does not have permanently based flying squadrons, but supports permanent detachments of the Squadron 502 (

EADS CASA C-295 The CASA C-295 (now Airbus C295) is a medium tactical transport aircraft that was designed and initially manufactured by the Spanish aerospace company CASA. Work on what would become the C-295 was started during the 1990s as a derivative of t ...

aircraft) and Squadron 751 (

AgustaWestland EH101 The AgustaWestland AW101 is a medium-lift helicopter in military and civil use. First flown in 1987, it was developed by a joint venture between Westland Helicopters in the United Kingdom and Agusta in Italy in response to national requirement ...

helicopters), which focus in

search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

missions.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines operate regular scheduled and charter flights at Porto Santo Airport:

Statistics

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control Airports in Portugal

Airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

Buildings and structures in Madeira Transport in Madeira