Government picks Alcochete to house the new airport

The Council of Ministers decided to locate the New Lisbon Airport in the Alochete firing range and keep Humberto Delgado airport running temporarily, increasing its capacity until the new Lisbon Airport is operational.

The Government also decided to name the new airport with poet Luís de Camões’s name.

The new airport will be the single airport in the region once it is fully built and up and running and will be designed to be able to expand (accommodating long-term demand), boosting agglomeration economies and integrated with other accessibility projects.

The recommendations, aligned with the Humberto Delgado Concession Agreement are for a base model with 2 runways (capacity for 90 to 90 flights per hour) and the possibility to expand to up to 4 runways for an estimated passenger traffic that could go beyond 100 million in 2050.

Single airport

Opting for a single airport enables the mitigation of the environmental and social impact on the Lisbon region, as the two-airport-solution doubles the negative environmental effects, and the single airport solution is located in a low population density area. Lisbon is the 2nd European capital with the greatest number of inhabitants exposed to aeronautical noise.

This choice enables accommodating TAP’s expansion plans, the preliminary forecasts for which are 190-250 aircraft in 2050.

The new Lisbon airport will serve as a lever for economic activity in the Southern Riverside arch, due to the intermodal networks between the airport, rail lines and access to Sines Sines (developing the national logistics hub).

Alcochete

The Government concluded that the Alcochete firing range offers advantages when compared to Vendas Novas, as it is fully located on state-owned grounds (Vendas Novas requires appropriating lands, which is an additional burden), already has an Environmental Impact Statement (currently expired), is closer to the centre of Lisbon (meaning less travel time and costs) and is closer to the main roads and rail lines (enables taking traffic away from the city centre).

The total cost for two runways is 3.231 billion euros (first runway) and 2.874 billion euros (second runway) to a total sum of 6.105 billion euros. The first runway should be built by 2030 and the second by 2031.

The Government is negotiating with the concessionaire to shorten the timeline for ANA to bid for the new airport, as is set in the concession agreement.

Humberto Delgado Airport

The second part of the decision is to promote Humberto Delgado Airport’s capacity increase to 45 flights per hour and investments in the terminals and access, as per the ANA concession agreement.

Humberto Delgado Airport is currently suffering from operational constraints and since 2018 it has been above the limits set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)

The complexity of operations leads to delays and lower ratings in customer service assessments, scoring 3.5 out of 5 in the service quality survey for 2023. On-time departures were at 52.2% in 2022.

It is imperative that we offer a response to the growing short-term demand, whose forecasts indicate 39 million passengers in 2030.

Lastly, the project is integrated with the High-Speed rail lines, allowing Humerbto Delgado Airport to attract passengers from underlying air routes and improving access to Francisco Sá Carneiro airport as the preferred airport for passengers in the central region.