Lisbon’s airports: Montijo – time to get the job finished

The conversion of the Montijo military airbase close to Lisbon into Portugal's capital city's second airport is taking almost as long as 'Brexit'. Indeed, finding a second Lisbon airport, anywhere, has rumbled on for five decades.

Capacity issues at Lisbon's Humberto Delgado Airport (LHDA) prompted ANA Airports of Portugal to consider 'annexing' the Montijo airbase (reported by CAPA-Centre for Aviation in Feb-2017). TAP Air Portugal advised that in order to maintain a hub structure at LHDA it would not use the Montijo facility and also declined to co-finance the development in any way, leaving that responsibility with ANA.

Alcochete and Montijo sites had been proposed but were consistently postponed as part of national cost-cutting measures, and the emphasis fell back on Portela Airport (LHDA). It was in 2017 that Alcochete and Montijo came back on the government's radar owing to large increases in passenger numbers in successive years - Portugal's tourism industry has had eight consecutive years of growth, which has helped the country recover from a severe debt crisis and the economic recession of 2010-13.

The government needs to finish the job quickly, or at least to make a start once the environmental assessment is out of the way. After five decades of prevarication the patience of the people is not guaranteed to last much longer.