22ND NOVEMBER 2019

Portugal gives green light to Lisbon’s new Montijo airport

Portugal’s environmental agency, APA, has approved a plan to build a greenfield airport in Lisbon on condition the developer takes €48m of measures to reduce noise and protect wildlife.

The Portuguese government has been a strong supporter of the project. Prime Minister António Costa said the Montijo location was “irreversible”, and João Neves, the economics secretary, said it was “the only plausible solution” given the 11% annual growth in the European air travel market. The government has a set a target of 2022 for the completion of the project.

The project’s developer is ANA Aeroportos de Portugal, the main airport operator in the country, and a subsidiary of French contractor Vinci has said that it will invest €1.1bn in Montijo, and also in an expansion of Portela, where traffic increased 9% in 2018 to 29 million passengers.

The new airport would also help service the annual visitors to the Algarve, further boosting both tourism and real estate markets.