Montijo airport go-ahead step closer
Plans to start work on a new secondary airport at Montijo could be a step closer to getting planning permission.
The airport project stalled earlier this year after environmental impact reports were heavily criticised and rejected by a number of environmental bodies.
But now ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal has supplied the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) with the additional information requested as part of the Environmental Impact Study (EIA) for Montijo which will be built on the South side of Lisbon’s River Tagus.
The new airport, which has been discussed and debated for over 20 years, with various sites suggested and then rejected, is needed because Lisbon’s existing international airport at Portela no longer has capacity.
The number of passengers at Humberto Delgado International Airport have risen from 14.8 million in 2011 to 29.1 million in 2018.
In June, ANA confirmed that the APA had “demanded additional clarifications” regarding the “usual decision-making procedure for a Environmental Impact Study statement of conformity.”
In other words the APA was not satisfied that all its requirements within the existing study had been met or explained and did not meet all laws and regulations.
At the time, the airports management company said that the questions would be answered within a month.
“ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal has already delivered the additional information requested by the APA” confirmed a source.
On 12 April, ANA told the Lusa news agency that the EIS for Montijo Airport had been completed. ANA and the Portuguese State signed an agreement to expand Lisbon’s airport capacity with an investment of €1.15Bn to 2028 by increasing the current Lisbon airport (Humberto Delgado) and turn the airforce base at Montijo into a new secondary airport.
On 4 January, the then minister of Planning and Infrastructures, Pedro Marques, stated that: “mitigation measures defined in the Environmental Impact Study would be fully met.”
The Prime Minister, António Costa said that the Government was only now waiting for the EIS to be accepted and that the choice of location for the new airport was “irreversible.”