Transport in Madeira introduced by Robert Reid Kalley in the 19th century. The islands have two airports, one in Santa Cruz (known as Funchal Airport (FNC)) on the Island of Madeira and the other in the city of Vila Baleira on Porto Santo Island. Flights to the islands are mostly made from Lisbon and Porto, but there are also direct flights from other major European cities and other countries, like Brazil, Venezuela and South Africa. The first seaplane to land in Madeira was Felixstowe F.3, captained Carlos Viegas Gago Coutinho by on 22 March 1921, Madeira then had regular Seaplane services from 1949
Geology of Madeira to the end of the Pleistocene ice ages means that some Quaternary marine terraces are as much as 100 meters above sea level. Groundwater on Madeira is held in fractured volcanic rock aquifers, with widely varying transmissivity and dissolved mineral content. Water is generally slightly acidic to slightly alkaline and cold, although there are small quantities of thermal water near fault zones. Much of the water on the island comes from high-discharge springs. Leptosols, cambisols and andisols are the three main soil types on the island. Madeira has few natural resources and no mining, aside from small-scale extraction of sand