Compare the best Madeira scenery add-ons for MSFS: MK-STUDIOS LPMA, freeware, Porto Santo and terrain packs, with compatibility and conflict advice.
The best all-round Madeira add-on for Microsoft Flight Simulator is MK-STUDIOS Madeira Airport (LPMA); for a free setup, choose one well-maintained LPMA enhancement instead. Add a Porto Santo (LPPS) upgrade for island-hopping, and use terrain or landmark packs only to fix a specific gap, because stacked scenery often causes duplicate buildings and runway elevation faults.
Which Madeira scenery add-on should you choose?
For most simmers, MK-STUDIOS Madeira Airport is the strongest single upgrade for Cristiano Ronaldo Madeira International Airport. It provides a coherent replacement for LPMA rather than asking several unrelated packages to modify the same terminal, apron and runway environment.
| Scenery option | Best for | Main caution |
|---|---|---|
| MK-STUDIOS Madeira Airport (LPMA) | A detailed commercial replacement for Madeira’s main airport | Confirm that the available build supports your simulator and platform, then disable every other LPMA airport package |
| One freeware LPMA enhancement | A lighter, free improvement to buildings, markings or airport objects | Choose one whose notes name your version of MSFS; do not combine several enhancements |
| Madeira landmark or POI pack | Low-level VFR around Funchal, Câmara de Lobos and the island’s coastal settlements | May duplicate buildings or objects supplied by another regional package |
| Porto Santo Airport enhancement (LPPS) | Short inter-island flights and a more complete Madeira archipelago setup | LPPS is a separate airport upgrade and does not improve LPMA |
| Terrain or elevation correction | Fixing a documented mountain, coastline or airport-platform defect | External mesh can interfere with LPMA’s own terraforming |
Our practical order is LPMA first, LPPS second and island landmarks third. Search the ICAO codes LPMA and LPPS in our Portugal-specific MSFS scenery collection; older packages may describe LPMA as Funchal or Madeira Airport instead of using its full present-day name.
For freeware, maintenance and compatibility matter more than the longest feature list. Our airport and regional scenery comparison criteria explain how to assess coverage, performance, dependencies and conflicting exclusion zones before installing a package.
Do you need Madeira terrain or landmark scenery?
No—install additional terrain only when you can identify a visible elevation problem. LPMA’s runway platform, steep surrounding ground and shoreline make conflicting terraforming unusually obvious, so an unnecessary mesh package can produce trenches, plateaux or sharp steps beside the runway.
A landmark pack is the better addition when the airport looks satisfactory but low-level VFR feels sparse. Terrain mesh changes ground shape; it does not automatically improve aerial imagery, buildings or vegetation. An airport package improves LPMA but should not be assumed to rebuild the whole island unless its description explicitly says so.
Scenery also cannot reproduce Madeira’s famous winds by itself. Crosswinds, turbulence and downdraughts come from the simulator’s weather and flight modelling, not from terminal, mesh or landmark files.
Will MSFS 2020 Madeira scenery work in MSFS 2024?
Sometimes, but compatibility should never be assumed. Many conventional PC Community packages made for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 can load in MSFS 2024, yet changes to streamed world data, materials, exclusions and terrain handling may reveal faults that were not present in the older simulator.
- On PC: prefer a package whose documentation explicitly names MSFS 2024, or test a 2020 package with all other Madeira add-ons disabled.
- On Xbox Series X|S: external Community-folder freeware cannot be copied to the console; use scenery made available through the simulator for that platform.
- On PlayStation 5 and PS5 Pro: the same external-file restriction applies to MSFS 2024, and platform availability can differ between products. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 was never released on PlayStation.
Do not install both an in-simulator copy and an externally downloaded copy of the same airport on PC. They may have different package identities, causing both versions to load together.
How do you fix scenery conflicts at Madeira Airport?
Start by leaving only one LPMA airport package enabled. Load order rarely cures two products attempting to replace the same runway, terminal and apron; removing the duplicate is the reliable fix.
- Disable every other LPMA enhancement. Check the simulator’s content library as well as the PC Community folder, because a Marketplace copy is easy to overlook.
- Remove separate Madeira mesh and elevation fixes. Reload LPMA and inspect both runway ends, the apron edges and the coastal side of the airport.
- Check Community-package nesting on PC. For a conventional package, files such as
manifest.jsonandlayout.jsonshould be in the package’s top-level folder, not buried inside an extra folder created during extraction. - Confirm dependencies and simulator support. Missing object libraries can produce empty aprons or absent buildings, while an incompatible package may fail to appear at all.
- Use Rolling Cache only for imagery faults. Rebuilding it can help stale streamed ground imagery, but it will not repair duplicated terminals, conflicting airport layouts or bad terraforming.
- Re-enable extras one at a time. Test LPMA after each landmark, mesh or regional package so the conflicting add-on is immediately clear.
What flight best shows a Madeira scenery upgrade?
A daylight circuit around LPMA followed by a flight to Porto Santo exposes most scenery strengths and faults. Inspect runway 05/23 from both directions, the runway platform and coastline, terminal placement, apron markings and the transition between airport terrain and the surrounding island.
Use fair weather for the first visual check, then repeat with realistic wind so scenery defects are not confused with turbulence or approach difficulty. LPMA also appears in our selection of demanding MSFS 2024 departure airports, where its terrain and island approaches are covered in the context of suitable flights.