Santarém “too far away” for airport

Portugal’s minister of Infrastructures, João Galamba has ruled out Santarém as the site for a new Lisbon international airport.

According to television station TVI and quoting statements made at the CNN Portugal Summit, Galamba thought that placing the new airport at Santarém in the Ribatejo region of Portugal, north of Lisbon was “too far” and therefore not viable.
The President of the Independent Technical Commission (CTI) which is studying all nine final options, Maria do Rosário Partidário told Radio Renascença that: “All possibilities are on the table and are being studied.”
Rosário Partidário also emphasised that the resolution from the Council of Ministers asked the CTI to evaluate “all nine options” and that the distance of Santarém from Lisbon “is just from his (Galamba’s) perspective”.
However, entrepreneur Carlos Frazão who heads developer Magallan Consortium 500 which would build the new airport at Santarém, pointed out that the time taken from the airport to Lisbon would be 29 minutes.
“We find these statements by the minister strange taking into account that a strategic evaluation study approved by the Council of Ministers is underway”, said the project developer for the Santarém option — which would be financed by private capital, including monies from the Barraqueiro Group – in statements to CNN Portugal.