Lisbon, July 2, 2024 (Lusa) - The coordinator of the Independent Technical Commission (CTI) for the new airport said on Tuesday that the government should define a programme for building the infrastructure at the Alcochete Shooting Range without waiting for ANA to decide.
"For the time being, the government can think about what it has to do - since it's the government that's leading the process. Having a programme, not waiting for the concessionaire to tell it what the programme is, it can start doing that while it's waiting for the concessionaire to respond in these six months on how it proposes to move forward," Rosário Partidário told journalists, speaking on the sidelines of the 27th ATRS (Air Transport Research Society) Conference in Lisbon.
Rosário Partidário said it was possible to have the new airport up and running by 2030, as indicated in the CTI report, as long as there is planning, organisation and quick decisions.
"The concessionaire [ANA Aeroportos] has six months to say this [how it intends to move forward in the face of the government's decision], but if for any reason it decides to follow the procedure that is in the concession contract, we'll be waiting five years for any machine to start doing its job on the ground," she said.
Rosário Partidário considered the new airport a "national emergency" and recalled that ANA "had been planning a new airport since 2013" but refused to build it at the Alcochete Firing Range.
"It's not something new, what has to be done, the studies, the procedures. It's a question of planning quickly and not waiting for the procedures and times that are laid down in the concession contract," he emphasised.
At the end of May, Portugal's minister for infrastructure and housing, Miguel Pinto Luz, announced that negotiations with Vinci/ANA for constructing the new airport would begin in the following days.
In the middle of the same month, the government approved the construction of the new airport for the Lisbon region at the Alcochete Firing Range, following the recommendation of the Independent Technical Commission (CTI).
The Air Force Firing Range, also known as the Alcochete Firing Range (due to its proximity to this urban centre), is mainly located in the parish of Samora Correia, in the municipality of Benavente (district of Santarém), with a small part in the parish of Canha, in the municipality of Montijo (district of Setúbal).
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