Beneath Madeira Airport's runway, a sports park shares space with arriving planes
Aircraft land above while locals play soccer, race go-karts and stop for coffee below. Água de Pena Sports Park occupies the space beneath Madeira Airport's elevated runway, putting the structure to use beyond aviation.
Yousef Al Marzouqi
Courts and community space below the runway
Built between 2005 and 2008, the park is in the municipality of Machico on the Portuguese island of Madeira. It turns the area between the runway's concrete supports into a recreation complex, making use of available land on an island known for its mountainous landscape.
According to Visit Madeira, the park offers more than a dozen multipurpose fields and courts. Soccer, futsal, tennis, padel and basketball facilities sit alongside areas for hockey, handball and squash. A sand field accommodates beach soccer and volleyball, while other spaces cater to skating, skateboarding, BMX and climbing.
The facilities extend beyond sports: visitors can find a nautical club, gym, amphitheater, gardens, restaurants, cafés and children's play areas. The site also provides 311 parking spaces.
The park serves as a venue for local events as well as recreation. In April 2023, a local walking soccer organization documented a tournament held beneath the runway.
An indoor kart circuit
Go-karting is another option under the airport platform. Eversoul Madeira describes an indoor, 400-meter circuit equipped with RIMO karts powered by 270cc Honda engines.
Movable SAFEBLOCK barriers let operators change the track layout. Eversoul Madeira lists operating hours as 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
The structure above the park
The elevated runway section opened to traffic on September 15, 2000, several years before construction of the sports park began. Madeira Flight's airport history describes a reinforced-concrete platform carrying roughly the final 1,000 meters of runway over the Atlantic. About 180 concrete columns support it, with heights commonly reported as reaching around 70 meters.
That engineering earned the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering's Outstanding Structure Award in 2004. Guinness World Records also recognizes it as the longest bridge-supported runway extension.
The airport's connection to soccer is not limited to the fields beneath it. At a ceremony on March 29, 2017, it was renamed Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport in honor of the Madeira-born player.
