Experts to review impact of five possible solutions for Lisbon airport

The group of experts that is to carry out the strategic environmental assessment for the planned new Lisbon airport is to look at five possible solutions, and may propose more if it sees fit, said Portugal’s minister of infrastructure and housing, Pedro Nuno Santos, on Thursday.

At the end of the the weekly cabinet meeting, the minister said that both single locations and dual solutions – encompassing the city’s existing facility – will be studied by the Technical Commission set up for the purpose.

Among the solutions under discussion is one whereby the existing Humberto Delgado Airport remains the city’s main airport, while a new facility at Montijo, on the south bank of the River Tagus, serves as a complementary one; another in which Montijo gradually acquires the status of main airport and Humberto Delgado the complementary one; a third in which Alcochete, also on the south bank, fully replaces Humberto Delgado; a fourth in which Alcochete will be the main airport and a new site at Santarém – some 70 kilometres north of Lisbon – houses a complementary one; and a fifth in which Santarém fully replaces Humberto Delgado.

The issue of how to handle growing air traffic has prompted years of debate, with a succession of governments having been unable to come to a definitive conclusion about the plan.