ANA is “prepared to put the caterpillars to work” at Montijo’s new airport
ANA Airports is ready "to put the caterpillars to work" at Montijo's new airport "as early as April."
José Luís Arnaut, chairman of ANA, the country’s airports manager, said on Thursday that the company was prepared “to put the ‘caterpillars’ to work” at Montijo’s new airport “as early as April.”
“We are prepared to put the ‘caterpillars’ to work already in the month of April,” said Ana’s ‘chairman’, who participated in the ‘webinar’ “Will there be a recovery without air transport?”, promoted by the newspaper Jornal Económico and the consultancy BDC.
The head of the airport manager underlined ANA’s full readiness to start work on Montijo’s airport infrastructure, which he considered important to avoid the constraints felt in 2019, with the increase in passenger flow at national airports and the inability of airport infrastructure to meet needs.
“We know that there are obstacles placed by some municipalities for political reasons,” said José Luís Arnaut, stressing the need to review the law that allows a single municipality to question works “of national interest.
“We will only get economic recovery first, if we have tourism recovery and, to have tourism recovery, there must be air transport and, to have air transport, there must be airport infrastructures”, he stressed.
He also criticised the application of a carbon tax “which implies a 20% increase [in the price of the air ticket] for each passenger”.
“Do you want to kill tourism?” he questioned, calling for “responsibility” on the part of the government. “It’s not just moratoria, it’s not just bazookas, there has to be responsibility”, he concluded.
The infrastructure minister said this week that the government was considering how to respond to the strategic environmental assessment of the new Montijo airport, approved by parliament, and hoped to have news “in the near future”.
