Government launches Strategic Environmental Assessment tender for new airport
The location is not yet defined, but the public tender for the Strategic Environmental Assessment for the future airport of the Lisbon region was launched this Monday.
The government on Monday launched an international public tender to carry out a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for Lisbon’s future airport, whose location has not yet been defined, according to a statement from the Ministry for Infrastructure and Housing. The deadline for submitting proposals ends on December 14.
The public tender, launched this Monday by the Institute of Mobility and Transport (IMT), has a base value of €2.5 million and will choose the company responsible for conducting the SEA, where three hypotheses will be analysed: Montijo as a complementary airport (as planned), Montijo as the main airport and construction of an airport at Alcochete Shooting Range (which will replace Portela airport).
In the State Budget for 2022 (OE2022) report, the Executive already provided for the launch of this public tender, stating that the SEA “will be a support document for the government’s decision, where alternatives compatible with the objectives outlined will be analysed, according to critical decision factors, in order to propose the best solution in environmental, technical, economic and financial terms.”
Last week, Minister Pedro Nuno Santos again referred to the need to make a decision on the location of the new airport. “We have no time to lose, the country cannot delay any longer. Perfect decisions do not exist, but we still have to decide. We need a new airport in the Lisbon region that serves the whole country,” said the ruler.
The government expects the SEA process to run throughout 2022, but the final political decision is only scheduled for April 2023, as Pedro Nuno Santos said last week. The SEA will force them to “wait another year or year and a half for a decision”, the minister said.
In March this year, the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) rejected the request for a prior assessment of the feasibility of converting Montijo into the capital’s complementary airport, considering that there were no favourable opinions from all the potentially affected municipalities – Seixal and Moita. With this, the Government then decided to conduct a SEA, comparing three possible solutions, as mentioned above.
