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The saturation of the Lisbon airport costs Portugal about a million tourists a year, according to an estimate quoted Monday by the representative of the tourist industry, which calls for the "urgent" construction of a complementary airport. "We are talking about a million tourists a year" lost due to the "saturation" of Lisbon airport, said the president of the Employers' Confederation of Tourism Francisco Calheiros, citing an estimate made early in the year. year by the manager of Portuguese airports ANA, a subsidiary of the French group Vinci.
"The question of the airport is a national issue", he said in an interview with the Jornal de Negocios and the radio Antena 1 , calling for an "urgent" decision to launch the construction of the planned additional airport in Montijo, in the southern suburbs of Lisbon
The Portuguese government and Vinci Airports agreed in February 2017 to study the possibility of providing Lisbon with a complementary airport by 2021, by building a new infrastructure on the site of the current military air base in Montijo.
ANA handed over to the Socialist Executive a proposal remained confidential last November, but the two parties have still not reached an agreement on the terms and financing of the project.
In early July, the Minister of Infrastructures Pedro Marques had mentioned his difficulty in negotiating with the project. airport manager, which he says is in a "very strong" position since its privatization in December 2012.
The tourism boom in Portugal has caused a congestion at Lisbon airport which, according to the company OAG, the sixth-worst airport in the world
In 2017, the country welcomed 12.7 million foreign tourists, an increase of 11.7% over the previous year. previous year.
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