Minister recognises ‘structural, cyclical problems’ at Lisbon airport

  • Lusa
  • 13 July 2022

"It is obvious to everyone that we have problems at Humberto Delgado Airport... cyclical and structural problems," stated the minister for infrastructure, Pedro Nuno Santos.

Portugal’s minister for infrastructure said on Wednesday that it is “obvious to everyone” that there are structural and cyclical problems at Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado Airport, while downplaying a negative ranking published by a German travel website, which classified it as the worst of 132 of the world’s airports.

“It is obvious to everyone that we have problems at Humberto Delgado Airport… cyclical and structural problems,” said the minister, Pedro Nuno Santos, in comments to a parliamentary committee, where he had been called at the request of the opposition centre-right Social Democratic Party (PSD), for clarifications on the problems at Lisbon and Porto airports.

However, the minister played down the classification by the German website AirHelp, which annually publishes a world ranking of airports, in which Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado Airport is ranked bottom, with an overall assessment of 5.76 points out of 10, among the 132 airports assessed.

According to the minister, this ranking has several flaws and is out of date, echoing the position of ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal, the unit of France’s Vinci that manages Portugal’s airports.

Santos also said that it was “obvious” that TAP, the national airline, was the one with the most flight cancellations at Lisbon airport, because “TAP’s presence at the airport is unmatched by any other airline” since it has most slots there.

He also said that between July 1 and 7 the average rate of cancellations at Lisbon airport was 4.5%, whilst TAP’s was 2.8%.

“We have problems at Humberto Delgado Airport … we have problems with the largest airline operating at that airport, but we are nevertheless very far from the reality experienced by the overwhelming majority of companies and airports throughout Europe,” Santos added.

The parliamentary grilling comes at a time when hundreds of flights are being cancelled every day at Europe’s airports, due to staff shortages, strikes and other aggravating factors, including weather, Covid-19 cases among staff, or other unforeseen circumstances. In Portugal, Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado Airport has been especially affected, with dozens of cancels each day in the past week.