The first step towards ending the debate that has lasted for more than half a century has been taken. The Independent Technical Commission (CTI), mandated by the government to evaluate strategic options to increase airport capacity in the Lisbon region, presented the assessment after a year of research. Building an airport from scratch at Campo de Tiro de Alcochete (CTA) while keeping Humberto Delgado Airport (AHD) operational is the best long-term solution to respond to the capital’s lack of airport capacity. The dual solution should work until the CTA airport can operate on its own and take the stage as Lisbon’s hub.
“The dual model is inevitable. AHD can only close if there is a runway that can replace it. It is therefore the dual solution that will have to advance first, with a complementary airport in the location where there is capacity to become a unique airport with proximity to the city of Lisbon,” the President of CTI said yesterday. During the presentation of the preliminary version of the strategic and multidisciplinary analysis report on the increase in airport capacity in the Lisbon region, which took place at the facilities of the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering (LNEC), Maria do Rosário Partidário assured that “an intercontinental hub also works better with a single airport”. Regarding the time needed to build the first runway in Alcochete, the coordinator of CTI’s airport planning area, Rosário Macário, assured that it will “barely” be finished in less than seven years. It could take “between eight and nine years for the second runway to be completed,” at which point Portela could then be deactivated, allowing Alcochete to operate alone.
But is it right that AHD is closing its doors? The CTI coordinator responded that “only time will tell.” “It will depend on different circumstances and uncertainties. AHD needs to close from a public health perspective, but it is a very strong financial asset. It will depend one way or another on how the uncertainties evolve. The concession contract also provides for AHD as a single airport and therefore it must close,” he explained. The preliminary report, which can be consulted on the aeroparticipa.pt platform, states that “environmental and public health reasons justify the closure or a significant reduction of movements in the AHD, and admits that technological developments will allow in the long term the term, the current consequences for most of the negative aspects of the airport”. But on the other hand, it points to arguments for postponing the closure. “For reasons of accessibility, shorter distances and therefore a smaller ecological footprint, and for economic and financial reasons , since it is a pre-existing infrastructure, it may make sense to extend the life of the AHD in the short/medium term “, reads. Nevertheless, the forecast procedure followed for the new Lisbon Airport (NAL) contractually leads to the closure of AHD , because NAL is designed as a replacement airport for AHD, therefore this decision will have to be made in the future. future, when the conditions exist for the closure of the AHD, which requires that the new infrastructure then be fully functional,” the CTI conclusions indicate.
In terms of costs, the work on the CTA requires an investment of eight billion euros. “All options are financially feasible and no public financing is needed for the construction of the new airport,” which will be implemented through airport taxes, Rosário also clarified.
New sales in second place
It is also on the south bank of the Tagus that there is the second best option, classified by CTI: the double solution that combines Portela with Vendas Novas. Here too, if so chosen, the objective is for Vendas Novas to gradually become the only airport infrastructure. But despite being well classified, there are disadvantages compared to CTA. For CTI, Alcochete comes first, above Vendas Novas, and offers more advantages due to the fact that it is “a public space and Vendas Novas involves expropriations” and the proximity factor.
The dual solution Portela+Montijo or Montijo only as a hub “are not viable options for aviation and environmental reasons, as well as for economic and financial reasons due to their limited capacity to expand air connectivity”. Regarding the Portela+Santarém or Santarém solution as a single airport, “these are not options for aeronautical reasons,” the document said. “Santarém has a problem with air navigation capacity and as a hub it would have a capacity almost lower than that of Portela, not to mention the distance to Lisbon,” explains Maria do Rosário Partidário. Along the way the option was Rio Frio+Poceirão. which failed for environmental reasons.
Nine strategic options were examined: the first five present in the RCM (Montijo+Portela, Portela+Montijo, Campo de Tiro de Alcochete, Portela+Santarém and Santarém) and four more added by the CTI (Portela+Campo de Tiro de Alcochete ; Vendas Novas+Pegões; Portela+Vendas Novas – Pegões and Rio Frio+Poceirão). Aviation safety, accessibility and territory, human health and environmental viability, connectivity and economic development and the public investment and financing model were the five critical decision factors that formed part of the strategic assessment framework for analyzing the options examined. In total there were 24 evaluation criteria and 88 indicators.
The future airport is owned by the government
The preliminary report will now be subject to public consultation for a period of 30 days, until January 19. After this period, the CTI, “evaluating the rationality, merit, expediency and technical relevance of each of these contributions, in the light of the critical factors for the decision”, will prepare the final report, integrating the contributions of this public consultation . , thus completing the mandate given to him. The final document should be ready early next year, but it will have to wait for the new government and only after March 10 will it be known what the future of the report will be. The Chairman of the Oversight Committee (CA), who is also the leader of the Supreme Council of Public Works (CSOP), reiterated the hope that the next executive branch will continue the work of the past year, which has now been presented. “It doesn’t occur to me that this [o relatório] won’t be of any use. This would discredit those with decision-making responsibilities and Portuguese women and men who take the trouble to participate in public consultations. We cannot postpone these processes anymore,” urged Carlos Mineiro Aires during his first speech at the third CTI conference.
The work coordinator emphasized that although the CTI “felt a lot of pressure from many sides” lobbies“There was “not even any pressure” from the government. The person in charge also guaranteed that “there was no contact other than of course of an administrative nature.”
The CTI, led by Maria do Rosário Partidário and six other coordinators, was tasked by the government through a resolution of the Council of Ministers (RCM) at the end of 2022 to evaluate strategic options to increase airport capacity in Lisbon. region and coordinates and carries out the strategic environmental impact assessment (SEA). The aim is for the report to be delivered by December 31, a deadline that will shift to January due to government procurement delays that occurred at the beginning of the year. “There is a small delay, but for those who had a six-month delay, now a one-month delay has been a quick recovery,” Mineiro Aires emphasized.
Rute Simão is a journalist for Dinheiro Vivo
Source: DN
