One of the airports mentioned was that of Funchal, the capital of the Madeira Island and archipelago. “There’s quite a bit of terrain there and some challenging winds to negotiate, so you have to have additional training for that”.

The airport used to be much worse, however: Madeira is a rugged island with very little flat land, so for years the island operated an airport with a dangerously short runway that couldn’t support large aircraft. An extension was completed in 1986 which added the rest of the solid ground available to the runway, but it continued to be overly short. In 2000, though, construction would begin on another extension, this time adding a whole kilometre extending over the sea on a massive platform held up by colossal pillars.

@easyjet Replying to @cleogreaves540 Did you know this? Have questions for our crew and pilots? Drop them down below and we’ll answer it in our next Q&A #easyjet #airline #pilot #aircraft #aircraftlanding #madeira #innsbruck #mykonos #planespotting #avgeek original sound - easyJet


The other airports the easyJet pilot mentioned were of Mykonos, in Greece, a destination famous for its beaches, which has a “very short, narrow” runway that makes landing a plane difficult, and Innsbruck, in Austria, a city and airport surrounded by the Alps, which may create difficult wind conditions and jet currents. “For that one,” the pilot said, “the captain and the first officer will both need additional training in the simulators. And then they’ll need to fly there with the training captain before being able to fly there with passengers.”

Author

Star in the 2015 music video for the hit single “Headlights” by German musician, DJ and record producer Robin Schulz featuring American singer-songwriter Ilsey. Also a journalist.

Jay Bodsworth