Montijo airport must go ahead now says TAP as it issues €50 million in investor shares

 In Infrastructure, News

The Chairman of Portugal’s airline TAP says that plans to build a third terminal on the south bank of the River Tagus in Lisbon must go ahead to alleviate congestion at Lisbon’s existing facility.

Miguel Frasquilho said in an interview with ECO24 that the third terminal was “vital” to deal with the increase in traffic from airline companies. “There will never be perfect solutions but this is the one on the table right now” he said.
Passenger traffic at Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado International Airport increased from 14.8 million in 2011 to 29.1 million in 2018.
And the TAP chairman has already warned that: “This summer will be difficult for all the airline companies operating at Lisbon airport.
“Humberto Delgado is pretty congested. The works at the airport which should improve efficiency will only start from October” he said adding: “We can’t wait forever for work to begin at Montijo.”
Frasquilho made his comments at the same time that TAP announced an extraordinary issue of shares worth €50 million at 4.375% with a four year maturity.
Until now TAP has never issued shares for investors and the airline chairman says it is up to investors to evaluate and decide to purchase or not based on the information provided in the prospectus which Frasquilho called “fairly complete”.
“The prospectus has 1000 pages with everything there is to know about this operation” said Frasquilho adding that the 4.375% interest rate being offered to investors was “an attractive operation.”
“It is not down to me to speak for investors who have to evaluate if this share emission is interesting or not. We have the expectation and confidence that the operation will be a successful one.”