VINCI and ANA awarded the right to build the new Lisbon airport – was more competition merited?

Many countries across the world have been through the mill of identifying a location for a major new airport, even when it is clear as day that one is needed urgently.

During the first quarter of this century passenger traffic at Lisbon's Humberto Delgado Airport in Portugal's capital city has grown from nine million to over 35 million each year, and up to 100 million annual passengers were expected by 2050, which it simply couldn't handle.

Expanding Humberto Delgado would be very difficult, as it is constrained by suburban developments, but securing a location for a long term replacement has been equally demanding as original proposals dating back decades were shelved, only for one of them to make a surprise return.

Now, a new airport will be built by 2034 on a military firing range close to a bird sanctuary (what could possibly go wrong?), although the procedure remains at an early stage, and formal proposals are not required for three years.

The question posed in this overview of events does not concern the location, though; rather it asks if the contract to build and operate it should have been handed on a plate to the existing private sector operator, or whether other capable organisations should have been afforded the opportunity to stake their claim.

And also it asks if there is any option for Humberto Delgado to retain an aeronautical role, rather than to be confined to history.