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There is no plan B "for the airport of Montijo," said Antonio Costa, in January, during the first bi-weekly debate of the year. And it seems that, regardless of the findings of the environmental impact study released yesterday, the government and Vinci will even go ahead with the construction of the new airport air base of this district municipality. Setúbal.
It is recalled that Vinci, owner of ANA – Aeroportos, has committed to deliver the document to the Portuguese Environmental Agency (APA) during the first half of April, which was done yesterday. And the end result does not please the government or Vinci: it highlights issues such as the threat to the bird species of the region, the problems related to noise and its negative influence on neighboring populations.
Despite this, and regardless of whether the findings are positive or negative, SOL knows that the decision of the government and the concessionaire is to maintain the construction in Montijo and find solutions to the problems reported by the evaluation. The members of the executive and Vinci are convinced that it is not possible to build an airport without environmental impediments.
Monte Real and Alverca from the outside
Besides the proximity of Lisbon, one of the aspects that has weighed more heavily in the government's decision to maintain the construction of Montijo airport is the fact that the tracks of this infrastructure are in parallel, which allows the simultaneous take-off or landing of two aircraft.
This is why neither Alverca airport – which has consequences for the air corridor – nor Monteverde airport – located more than 45 km from the capital – are assumptions made on the table. In February of this year, the government planned to implement a project in Monte Real so that the military base could also be used for civilian purposes.
"Representatives of the Ministries of National Defense, Planning and Infrastructure met with the President of the Inter-communal Community (CIM) of the Leiria region, with whom they presented a report on the state of the country. progress of the study on the civilian use of the Monte Real Air Base ", presented last June, mentioned the communiqué of the Ministry under the tutelage of Pedro Nuno Santos – and, at the 39, by Pedro Marques. "At this meeting, the work already done was analyzed and the next steps of the study were examined," added the note, without giving details. However, the SOL knows that Monte Real is no longer an alternative hypothesis. For the dealer, the remoteness of the Portuguese capital forces to reject this option.
Earlier this month, another alternative came back to be the subject of much discussion: Alverca. The Alliance party, led by Pedro Santana Lopes, said Tuesday that it was the best solution for a project to reduce pressure on the Portela airport. "There is no reason to make Montijo better than this obvious solution to that of Alverca.Alverca is the most logical and rational solution" in terms of "access", "security" or "speed," said Santana Lopes. The government has publicly rejected this assumption, saying that the creation of an airport in Alverca would constitute a serious attack on the environment and a financial disaster. "The government is not available to play with the location of the airports, nor to land several hundred hectares on the Tagus. It is an election campaign of no consequence," said the Secretary of State. of state, Alberto Souto Miranda.
Humberto Delgado Airport within the limit
According to the traffic results released by Vinci last Friday in the first quarter of 2019, Lisbon Airport has only increased by 4.2% – Faro, 12.3% and Porto 9.5% – capacity.
"In the Lisbon hub, traffic has increased by 4.2%, despite the high base of comparison and current capacity constraints," reads in the statement to which the SOL had access, indicating that the agreement concluded with the Portuguese Government regarding the opening of a new civilian airport in Montijo, 25 km from the center of the capital, will help to cope with the evolution of traffic until the expiry of the concession in 2063 ".
According to data published by Vinci, during the first quarters of this year, Portugal welcomed more than 11 million passengers at its airports. Of these, more than six million have borrowed Lisbon Airport, 2.6 million for the port, one million for Faro, 731,000 for Madeira and only 408,000 for the Azores. Lisbon recorded the slowest growth compared to the same period last year.
Zero files a complaint
During the year 2018, Portugal welcomed nearly 56 million passengers: 29.2 million passengers passed through the Lisbon airport, 12.1 million by Porto, 8.7 million by Faro, 3.3 million by Madeira and 2.3 million for the Azores. Compared to 2017, Lisbon recorded growth of 6.5%, port 10.2% and Faro 0.8%.
It is recalled that Associação Zero filed in early March a complaint against APA claiming a more comprehensive strategic environmental assessment and highlighting all the alternatives, including the non construction of a new airport. In addition, the environmental association advanced last August with a complaint against the government to the European Commission, with the aim of trying to curb the progress of the new project without paying attention to problems such as as influences on the environment and neighboring populations. .
"[A queixa apresentada em Portugal] was presented with urgency, but we have not yet received an answer. We are studying what the next steps will be. We reinforce the complaint to the European Commission in August. We have not received an answer yet, but we know that the analysis is under way, "said Carla Graça, vice president of Zero, in the newspaper.
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