Commission to unveil list of possible locations for new Lisbon airport

The independent technical commission that is studying the expansion of Lisbon’s airport capacity is announcing on Thursday the final list of possible locations, with the aim of presenting a solution by the end of the year.

The presentation of the final list will be made at the first conference of the Independent Technical Commission (CTI), on the results of the activities developed in the first phase of the strategic environmental assessment on the increase of airport capacity for the Lisbon region.

Created at the end of last year, the CTI, housed at the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering (LNEC) in Lisbon, has as general coordinator Professor Rosário Partidário and has a team of six technical coordinators.

In an interview with Lusa in late January, university professor Rosário Macário, technical coordinator of CTI and a specialist in transport systems planning and operation, who was responsible for coordinating the airport planning area, said that Beja and Alverca had been added to the list of possible locations and that the committee was still open to receiving more proposals.

These two locations are in addition to the five proposals included in the Cabinet resolution approved last year, which set up a CTI to analyse five hypotheses for the Lisbon airport solution (Portela + Montijo; Montijo + Portela; Alcochete; Portela + Santarém; Santarém), but provided that other options could be added.

In recent days, the hypotheses of Monte Real (Leiria) and Alcochete + Portela have also been reported.

The reports with the conclusions of the CTI have to be closed by November, and then move on to the public discussion phase.