Civil engineering work at Faro airport will be completed early this summer, according to the Minister of Planning and Infrastructure, Pedro Marques, who seemed keen to announce this development even though the work is privately funded and is four months behind schedule.
The €35 million current expansion and refurbishment works will enable Faro Airport to cater for the expected increase in passenger traffic.
In 2016, Aeroportos de Portugal (ANA) announced that 7.6 million passengers had passed through the Algarve’s only airport, a new record, after a growth of 18.5%. Numbers in 2016 were up 18.7% on the year before and the trend continues.
The completed work will allow an increase of the terminal's capacity to board and disembark 2,400 to 3,000 people per hour.
The airport will have grown from 81,200 m2 to 93,120 m2, with a modernised security and retail area.
The number of aircraft landing and taking off can be increased and a new security area is opening next week with six additional security check points, to be followed in the first quarter of this year by the first new check-in area at the north side of the terminal.
The remaining areas will be progressively opened, with completion scheduled for July this year.
According to ANA, owned by the French infrastructure group, Vinci, its investment in Faro Airport will come to €78 million from between 2009 and 2017.
The 2009 to 2013 work was on the road and landscaping at a cost of €43 million.
