Works at Lisbon airport may advance at the end of 2023
The executive chairman of ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal said this Friday that he believes that the works at Lisbon airport, which will increase efficiency, in an investment of 200 to 300 million euros, can go ahead at the end of 2023.
Thierry Ligonnière advanced this information during the 47th National Congress of the Portuguese Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies (APAVT), which takes place in Ponta Delgada, São Miguel, in the Azores.
“The project for this first phase of the expansion of Lisbon airport — which is not a capacity expansion, because that involves environmental licensing — […] puts on the table the feasibility of increasing capacity at Lisbon airport”, said the official.
“It is a project of 200 to 300 million euros that includes the creation of a new apron with the possibility of putting the planes in contact with the infrastructure […] it also allows expanding Terminal 1 to the South with more than ten boarding gates so that we can board and disembark through telescopic bridges”, he said.
“This is an important leap at Lisbon airport”, underlined the CEO.
On the sidelines of the congress, the CEO also explained to Lusa that, basically, these works will bring “a little more operational performance and, eventually, more traffic capacity at the airport just for the sake of efficiency, not the declared capacity”.
About the works, he says that they have already been done at the level of an execution project, now following an administrative process, namely “environmental licensing – not necessarily in this case a declaration of environmental impact -“, but there will be, according to him, a consultation with users, authorizations by the regulator, ANAC, an assessment by the grantor as well.
Having said that, “if things went the way we are imagining – and it is necessary to have the voluntary contribution of all the entities involved in this process -, but if everyone did their job quickly, we could potentially start the works at the end of 2023 “, he stated.
The CEO of the company that manages the national airports also said that the project’s terms of reference are ready, the tender for the works is missing.
Also to Lusa, Thierry Ligonnière explained how these efficiency gains could happen.
“Having contact positions reduces the use of buses and parking of planes in a remote position. This will improve the quality of service and also improve the environmental performance of the airport in general terms”, he said.
Even so, questioned if the works will then translate into a greater number of aircraft movements per hour, Thierry Ligonnière said that they will “bring regularity”.
“Lisbon airport in its current capacity sometimes has difficulties because there are irregularities, there are delays, there are cancellations”, he exemplified, adding that “for the airport to work well – to create capacity when there is no capacity, to do it in terms of infrastructure itself – has to be through operational performance,” he added.
On September 29, the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Pedro Nuno Santos, stated that Humberto Delgado Airport, in Lisbon, it needs works “now” to increase its fluidity, taking into account that the new airport “will take time”.
At the end of the Council of Ministers, the government official admitted that “the new airport will take time”, but that there is “urgency already today” and that “the works in Portela [Humberto Delgado]not allowing to increase the capacity of the airport, they will at least allow to increase the fluidity of the operation of the airport operation”, he indicated.
This initiative “implies investment and implies changing the bases of the concession” with ANA, owned by the Vinci group, he said, indicating that it is within this framework that it is possible to “reach a value” for this investment, reaching an “understanding” with the companies.
According to the minister, in this negotiation with ANA, for now, they are only concerned with works at Humberto Delgado airport, since the location of the new infrastructure has not yet been defined.
At the opening of the congress, the president of APAVT argued that, not expecting a solution for the new airport structure to be integrated in the coming years, it was necessary to move forward with the works at Lisbon airport to improve efficiency.