“Nothing stopping” new airport from opening earlier – Government

Portugal’s Secretary of State for Infrastructure believes that “nothing prevents” ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal from accelerating the deadline for the new Lisbon airport in Alcochete, pointing to 2034-2035 as a viable deadline.

Hugo Espírito Santo addressed the issue in Macau after the chairman of the Board of Directors of ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal, José Luís Arnaut, acknowledged that he wanted to bring forward the deadline, but pointed out that 2037 is what is set out in the initial proposal, “as a safety valve”.

“The 2037 deadline is the sole responsibility of José Luís Arnaut [chairman of ANA]. Our timeline is 2034-2035. We are having this discussion. José Luís Arnaut has done the exercise of counting all the deadlines. Still, if ANA brings the deadlines forward, we would be deeply grateful, and it would be a sign that it is deeply committed to this partnership with the Portuguese state”, said Hugo Espírito Santo.

The government official and chairman of the national airport management company were speaking at the 50th National Congress of the Portuguese Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies (APAVT) in Macau.

“Therefore, nothing prevents them from speeding up the deadline, and we will do everything we can on our side. But, therefore, 2035”, stressed the government official, responding to a question from APAVT president Pedro Costa Ferreira, who wanted to know if it was possible to plan all the accessibility and infrastructure works “at the same time until 2037, so that the airport can happen”.

Earlier, the ANA official had stressed that the process is lengthy, noting that there are a series of legal requirements, procedures, and European and national legislation to be complied with before the construction phase can begin.

“The position of my shareholder and mine as president is ‘it’s decided [Alcochete], we’re going to bring it forward, we’re going to speed it up, and we’re going to have Alcochete up and running as soon as possible’. Because that’s in the country’s interest”, said José Luís Arnaut.

Urged several times by the APAVT president to set a likely date, the ANA chairman said he did not want to commit himself. However, he added that “there is a very strong desire”, not least because ANA’s interest “is the same as that of the government and the tourism sector”, to “try to shorten as much as possible the steps that can be shortened (…) to start the work as soon as possible”.

José Luís Arnaut pointed out that this is a future airport that will be five times the size of the current Lisbon airport. “Our desire is for it to be before [2036]. But we will see the final project, we will see what the construction companies are going to do (…) I would like it to be in 2035, but we will see… in 2035, 2036. (…) We are talking about the ideal scenario”, he stressed.

“The deadline in our proposal is 2037 for one simple reason, because we need to have some safety valves in place, but we are working with the government to reduce the deadlines”, namely work that can go ahead without having to wait for others, he explained.

“This coordination is being done in the national interest, which is common”, José Luís Arnaut said.

The 50th APAVT National Congress, which runs until the 4th, has more than 1,000 delegates in Macau.