Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Porto Santo Airport (LPPS) serves Porto Santo Island in the Madeira archipelago, sharing its single long runway with the Portuguese Air Force's Maneuver Aerodrome n.3. For a visiting sim pilot it offers a generous 9,853 ft strip in an otherwise remote Atlantic setting, with no ILS but VOR and NDB approaches available.
Porto Santo Airport lies at Vila Baleira, the capital of Porto Santo Island in the Madeira archipelago, and is the smaller of Madeira's two international aerodromes. It is a joint civil-military field, with the runway and apron shared between scheduled and charter passenger traffic and the Portuguese Air Force's Maneuver Aerodrome n.3 (AM3). For a simulator pilot the appeal lies in its long single runway set on a small, low-lying Atlantic island, its lack of an ILS, and the military search-and-rescue detachments that operate alongside civil flights.
The airport sits on Porto Santo Island, part of the Madeira archipelago in the Atlantic, at Vila Baleira. It is managed by ANA Aeroportos de Portugal (VINCI Airports).
There is a single physical runway, 18/36, 9,853 ft long with a hard surface and lit. Both ends are usable, giving ample length for the airport's mixed civil and military traffic.
Radio services at Porto Santo comprise a GCA frequency of 123.3 MHz and a Tower frequency of 120.05 MHz. There is no ILS installed, but VOR and NDB approaches are available for instrument arrivals.
Porto Santo was the first of the Madeira Islands to gain an airport, with a 2,000 m runway built in 1959. The first aircraft to land there was a TAP Air Portugal Douglas DC-4, on 20 July 1960. The field's infrastructure was progressively upgraded, culminating in improvements finalised on 28 August 1995, when a new passenger terminal opened alongside a runway extension to 3,000 m and a full re-paving. The Maneuver Aerodrome n.3 (AM3), a Portuguese Air Force forward air base, was established in 2009 from the earlier Madeira Air Detachment and continues to share the aeronautical facilities with the civil airport.
Porto Santo Airport is operated by ANA Aeroportos de Portugal under VINCI Airports and handles mainly tourist traffic, with scheduled and seasonal charter services from carriers including TAP Air Portugal, easyJet, Luxair, Binter Canarias, AlbaStar and Smartwings. The co-located military base, AM3, does not have permanently assigned squadrons but hosts regular detachments of Squadron 502 flying the CASA C-295 and Squadron 751 flying the AgustaWestland EH101, both engaged in search-and-rescue duties.