Lisbon, Nov. 11, 2025 (Lusa) - The government said on Tuesday that Lisbon's airport infrastructures responded adequately to the demand for slots for private flights during the Web Summit, with Lisbon airport turning down only seven of the more than 100 requests received.
In a statement, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing said that the National Slots Coordination - an independent entity of NAV Portugal responsible for allocating slots for landing or taking off at coordinated national airports - "received more than 100 slot requests for operations at Lisbon airport between 9 and 13 November, approving 95 of the requests and only refusing seven that could not be accommodated at that infrastructure so far".
He pointed out that, compared to the same period in Web Summit 2024, the number of slots allocated to private flights increased by around 70%.
At the Cascais Municipal Aerodrome, the ministry says 51 flights have been planned for the period in question, while 29 and 19 private flights are currently scheduled for Faro and Porto, respectively.
In Beja, no requests for operations have been registered so far, he added.
In the specific case of Lisbon airport, the government explained that the allocation of slots "is made based on defined technical criteria", which, in the case of private flights, include a maximum stay on the ground of 45 minutes (“turnaround”) and the obligation to submit the request 10 days in advance of the desired date.
"At certain times of the day, however, the capacity of Lisbon airport is completely exhausted due to the existence of 38 movements per hour (declared capacity) that have already been authorised," he said.
The government said that national airport infrastructures "remain fully available to host private operations", namely at the Cascais Municipal Aerodrome (referred to as the "reference aerodrome for business aviation in the Lisbon region"), as well as at Beja, Faro and Porto airports.
Even so, it assures that it is "closely monitoring this matter" and remains "available to adopt exceptional measures if necessary", namely the "temporary lifting of operational restrictions applicable to aerodromes", such as opening during the night.
"Portugal thus reaffirms its total availability and capacity to host any event on a global scale, such as the Web Summit, in the best possible conditions and to welcome its participants," the ministry said.
In this regard, it recalls that Lisbon has been hosting the Web Summit for nine years now, and the event has become "an international success story".
Last Saturday, the Expresso newspaper reported, quoting the Financial Times, that several private jets bound for Lisbon were being diverted to Badajoz, Spain, "due to the lack of capacity at the Portuguese capital's airport during the Web Summit".
The information was confirmed by the event organisers themselves, who acknowledged receiving complaints from delegates forced to land far from Lisbon.
PD/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
