Government tries to accelerate new Lisbon airport opening, but environmental constraints remain

Many European airport developments have been held up, or even thwarted altogether, by environmental concerns. One of them is the greenfield Luís de Camões Airport in Lisbon, on which construction is yet to start.

Luís de Camões is intended to replace the existing and very capacity-constrained Humberto Delgado Airport, which is slap bang in the middle of a built up area and already operating well beyond its design threshold. Initially this new build airport project was intended to deliver a low cost reliever facility but it has been overtaken by events.

There is a long history to the project - detailed in this report - which dates back 28 years already and which has trawled areas to the north and south of the capital for a suitable site without ever really finding one.

While the Luís de Camões location ticks many boxes and especially the one for surface transport links, it is still preciously close to environmentally protected areas and as things stand only conditional approval can be expected even after the findings of a strategic environment assessment are revealed.

In the meantime the government is pressing the airport operator, ANA, to move up through the gears and get it delivered by 2034.

And a further complication has arisen with the looming partial sale of flag carrier TAP Air Portugal, probably to a very large European airline consortium. The buyers are faced with a potential outcome that could have them operating out of a space shared by an airport and a nature reserve, and not any old wetland - one which is Portugal's largest, covering over 14,000 hectares.