Well it seems at least for now that Lisbon may have an expanded airport in the foreseeable future.
I apologize if I don't sound very enthusiastic about it because talk of a new or expanded airport has been going on for the last 50 years but it seems that this time something might actually happen.

The government and ANA have signed an agreement today on what the airport infrastructure will be like by 2028. The goal is at least 50 million annual passengers.
The article is only in Portuguese. I searched on google and couldn't yet find an English language news source on this topic, but the embedded video is somewhat self-explanatory if you can't read Portuguese.
https://sicnoticias.sapo.pt/economia/20 ... inado-hoje

The main points are:
- New single runway airport at Montijo for O&D service with capacity for 10Mil annual pax to be ready in 2022. This will be a combined military/civilian facility.
- ANA will buy the military base at LIS and close rwy 17/35. this will allow to build an expanded terminal and additional remote stands.
- New ATC by 2020 will allow for more movements
- The 2 airports will have a combined capacity of 50+ Mil pax. The goal is to have 42Mil pax at LIS in the next 40 years.

Now my comments
I still maintain this is a huge mistake. LIS is already at 30 Million pax. Does anyone really believe it will take 40 years to reach 42 Million passengers?
IMO, it's not feasible to run an efficient, 40 Mil pax hub with a single runway on such a constrained terminal area.
No airline has committed to move from LIS to Montijo and I don't expect any of them to do it. They will offer significantly reduced taxes at Montijo but if the passengers don't want to fly there no airline will move there, at least not in significant enough numbers.
There is no such thing as a new O&D airports anymore. Self-connecting between LCC's and network carriers is common now and will be even more common in the future which is why the likes os Easyjet and Ryanair are in LIS. https://www.oag.com/blog/airline-passen ... connection

It’s just just stupid the fact of not prolonging that taxiway to runway 21

Reliever airports for O&D traffic are almost always useless in all but the biggest markets. If they do manage to take traffic, it's almost always low-cost leisure traffic, which isn't what's causing runway congestion anyway. Those flights are usually on relatively large planes (not RJs) and they aren't very time sensitive so they can be scheduled at off-peak times anyway. Getting 10 million passengers per year at a reliever airport in a place like Lisbon isn't going to be easy.

An O&D airport in Lisbon might not be as bad a concept as you might think as one would expect LIS connecting traffic to be lower than other european major airports due to locations, Americas and West Africa bound mainly but very few intra-european connections.

Self-connecting LCC traffic in LIS I bet is insignificant, with the proper incentives I wouldn't rule out LCC's and even OW and Sky operating out of Montijo.

Dreaming is still for free....perfect scenario would be the other way around, LIS becoming O&D as it's much closer to Lisbon centre and Montijo for connecting and long-haul traffic, very much a la CDG/ORY in Paris.

YYZLGA wrote:

Reliever airports for O&D traffic are almost always useless in all but the biggest markets. If they do manage to take traffic, it's almost always low-cost leisure traffic, which isn't what's causing runway congestion anyway. Those flights are usually on relatively large planes (not RJs) and they aren't very time sensitive so they can be scheduled at off-peak times anyway. Getting 10 million passengers per year at a reliever airport in a place like Lisbon isn't going to be easy.

I can tell you RJ traffic isn't an issue in Lisbon, the issue is being in the middle on the city with a single runway. RJ traffic in most of Europe has nothing to do with that of the US.

upperdeckfan wrote:

An O&D airport in Lisbon might not be as bad a concept as you might think as one would expect LIS connecting traffic to be lower than other european major airports due to locations, Americas and West Africa bound mainly but very few intra-european connections.

The only reason it's not as bad a concept is because they've been dragging their feet for years and now there's really notother alternative for the near future.
LIS has a higher percentage of connecting traffic than LHR, just to name one airport. 50% of all of TP's traffic is connecting, and that's really the biggest misconception among the Portuguese public who believe the airport exists to cater to the wealthier Portuguese and tourists when in reality a huge % of passengers who use LIS never actually leave the airport.

Self-connecting LCC traffic in LIS I bet is insignificant, with the proper incentives I wouldn't rule out LCC's and even OW and Sky operating out of Montijo.

I wouldn't say it's insignificant. There's a reason why Easyjet has stated quite openly that they are not moving.

Dreaming is still for free....perfect scenario would be the other way around, LIS becoming O&D as it's much closer to Lisbon centre and Montijo for connecting and long-haul traffic, very much a la CDG/ORY in Paris.

Montijo is just as conditioned as the current airport and will likely be obsolete before the end of this 2028 date, if it ever sees any significant operations. I'm expecting it to be another Beja airport.
If you look at the plans they are keeping rwy 8/26 even though it is perpendicular to the prevailing winds. So rwy 1/19 would have been better but it has a protected natural preserve to the north and a city to the south so N-S operations will never be allowed even tho it's the most efficient according to the weather. That means there's only space for 1 runway, and a short one at that (8,000ft), and although there is ample space for a terminal and supporting buildings it is nothing that could support a 50 million passenger hub.

The perfect scenario would be to do in Alcochete what they are proposing for Montijo. Then progressively expand that into a larger airport and close "Portela".
But that will never happen because that would mean taking the airport out of the hands of the Lisbon politicians and giving it to Santarem.
The day we gave up on Ota was the day we gave up on a new hub airport for Lisbon.

Duartelmatos wrote:

It’s just just stupid the fact of not prolonging that taxiway to runway 21

Absolutely! Unfortunately they'd have to acquire a big chunk of private land and find a place to relocate those businesses so I suspect that's what the obstacle is.

Correction to my post above. They are indeed keeping rwy 01/09, the N-S runway. So at least that is a good thing, albeit with the environmental constraints that I mentioned and an even shorter runway.
New video here:
https://www.jornaldenegocios.pt/multime ... -de-lisboa

airbazar wrote:

Correction to my post above. They are indeed keeping rwy 01/09, the N-S runway. So at least that is a good thing, albeit with the environmental constraints that I mentioned and an even shorter runway.
New video here:
https://www.jornaldenegocios.pt/multime ... -de-lisboa

Makes sense - landings at Montijo 08 would make a royal mess of the approach to LIS' 03.

English language news:
https://www.passengerterminaltoday.com/ ... nsion.html

It's only a little over a billion euro project... chump change when it comes to building/expanding airports. If this gives LIS a breather than it's not a bad deal. They can continue working on a permanent solution for 2035 and beyond.

I believe TP preferred this as they will have an airport pretty much all to themselves. The low-cost will love Montijo because of lower landing fees. This could be a win-win and low-risk for Portugal who doesn't have a lot of free money for big projects.

Well, this proposal could go up in flames if the environmental assessment doesn't go their way. So there's more to come.

boeingbus wrote:

It's only a little over a billion euro project... chump change when it comes to building/expanding airports. If this gives LIS a breather than it's not a bad deal. They can continue working on a permanent solution for 2035 and beyond.

For Portugal that is not chump change but I do agree that it is a much needed expansion, no matter the cost. And this is the permanent solution. There will be nothing else after. It has taken literally 50+ years to get to this point. However, the 1.2 billion euro is the "advertised" cost. The real cost will be at least double that.

boeingbus wrote:

I believe TP preferred this as they will have an airport pretty much all to themselves. The low-cost will love Montijo because of lower landing fees. This could be a win-win and low-risk for Portugal who doesn't have a lot of free money for big projects.

TAP wanted a solution, any solution. I guarantee you that if offered a brand new airport with multiple runways they wouldn't have turned it down
And no, they will not have the airport all to themselves. No airlines will leave the current airport. Not a single airline has shown interest, let alone committed to operating from Montijo, low taxes and all. IMO, Montijo is just a ruse to get the expansion at LIS approved. They will build it as a jobs program, it will see a handfull of flights per day, but the real news here is the expansion of LIS.

It's a go, according to Reuters, with environmental conditions:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-portugal-airport-montijo-idUSKBN1XA21I

boeingbus wrote:

It's a go, according to Reuters, with environmental conditions:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-portugal-airport-montijo-idUSKBN1XA21I

I'll believe it when I see it.
The airport is already too constrained as it is. Now add all of these environmental restrictions on top of it and it's looking more and more like a giant money pit that will add almost no value.