To cope with the saturation of the current Lisbon airport, the Portuguese government is leaning towards the construction initially of a second complementary infrastructure, located on the south bank of the Tagus estuary, according to a decree published on Wednesday 29 June.
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The government is considering "
the construction of the additional airport
" in Montijo, facing Lisbon, where there is currently a military base, said the State Secretariat for Infrastructure in its decree.
Its commissioning is scheduled for 2026 or 2027, AFP learned from a source familiar with the matter.
The decision announced Wednesday implies that the executive gives up carrying out an environmental assessment which was to compare three alternative projects and is preparing to amend the law which gave local municipalities a right of veto on government decisions, said this source.
“Urgent capacity problem”
The solution proposed by the government, which must still be the subject of technical studies, "
will provide, in the short term, a viable and optimized response
", welcomed ANA, the manager of Portuguese airports.
Ana is a subsidiary of the French group Vinci which will be responsible for the construction of these infrastructures.
In addition, the socialist executive already wants to start planning the construction of a future single airport in Alcochete, also on the south bank of the Tagus, which will be able to serve the region in the longer term and will replace the current Portela airport and that of Montijo, when they are saturated.
The solution recommended by the government makes it possible to respond to "
the problem of airport capacity (...) identified since 2017 and which remains urgent
", argued the government, recalling that the growth in passenger traffic had increased by 140% between 2009 and 2019.
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With the resumption of tourism, Portela airport, located in the north of Lisbon, is again regularly faced with problems of delays or long queues for passengers disembarking in the Portuguese capital.
In April alone, some 4.9 million passengers passed through the airport, just 6.5% less than in April 2019, according to the latest figures from the National Institute of Statistics.
That year, attendance at the airport had reached a record 31 million passengers, before collapsing by almost 70% the following year due to the health crisis.
