No new tender for Alcochete option

The Portuguese government has stated that resurrecting plans for a new second international airport at Alcochete (abandoning the Monsanto option) will not require a new international competition or compensation.

According to the Minister for Infrastructure and Housing, led by Pedro Nuno Santos, the schedule for the development of the complementary airport has been interrupted and, to date, has not been restarted.
Dinheiro Vivo reported on Saturday that moving plans for the airport from Montijo back to Alcochete would cost €16Bn more than the Montijo option. This amount results from the difference between the €7.6Bn costs necessary to prepare Alcohete and the €1.5Bn in Montijo secured by ANA – the company that manages Portugal’s airports, and financed by airport taxes.
Furthermore, that would also take into account compensation. The newspaper reports that the government would be obliged to hold a new international competition, meaning the winner to which the 50-year operational lease had been awarded, ANA, would now lose the contract and would be entitled to €10Bn compensation.
The Minister of Infrastructures and Housing said that these were “wrong assumptions” and that any change in the location of the airport because of a strategic environmental evaluation would not require launching a fresh international competition, or the payment of compensation”.
The minister explained that the contract of concession between the Portuguese State and ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal, was signed in 2012 for a period of 50 years to guarantee that the airport infrastructure for the Lisbon region would be capable of meeting increased demand. The confirmation of three of more indictors for the performance of the current Humberto Delgado Airport meant that a new airport would advance, which took place in 2017, with ANA notifying the Portuguese State in March 2018.
From that notification date there was a timeframe of five years for the conclusion of an adoption procedure for the construction of a new Lisbon airport. Moreover, the contract also foresees that ANA can present a “proposal for an alternative”, which is what took place when in October 2017, ANA submitted the proposal for a Complementary Airport of Montijo.