Portugal. 2.5 million euros for new airport environmental assessment

The Portuguese government has allocated €2.5 million to the Institute of Mobility and Transport (IMT) to purchase services to prepare the environmental assessment report for the new Lisbon airport.

According to an order published today in Diário da República (Official Gazette), “considering the scope of duties of the Institute of Mobility and Transport, I. P., it will be this institute’s responsibility to carry out the process of launching an international public tender to hire an entity to coordinate and carry out the strategic environmental assessment, and it will also have the duty to permanently monitor the process of drafting the strategic environmental assessment, as well as to assist the government throughout the process.

Montijo Airport obtained a conditional environmental impact statement in January 2020. However, in early March 2021, the National Civil Aviation Authority (ANAC) preliminarily rejected ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal’s request for a prior feasibility assessment to construct that infrastructure, as it had not obtained a favourable opinion from all the municipal councils of the potentially affected municipalities.

Following ANAC’s decision, the government decided to promote a strategic environmental assessment that will make a comparative study of three solutions: a dual solution, in which Lisbon Airport will be the main airport and Montijo Airport a complementary one; an alternative dual solution, in which Montijo Airport will progressively acquire the status of main airport and Lisbon Airport that of complementary one, including the capacity for the main airport to fully replace the operation of the secondary airport; and the construction of a new international airport at Campo de Tiro de Alcochete, which will, over time, fully replace Lisbon Airport.

To carry out the strategic environmental assessment, the government intends to launch an international public tender “to choose an entity with different specific skills, guaranteeing quality, exemption, transparency and competence throughout the process.

The government also understood that the “coordination of this process, the launch of the tender procedure and the permanent accompaniment must be carried out by a national public entity with competences in the transport sector” and “concerning which the Government has powers of tutelage and superintendence”, as is the case of the IMT.