Councilllors and local businessmen in the Baixo Alentejo area have criticised the millions of euros that are to be spent to develop Montijo Air Force base as a civilian airport, claiming the Beja airport is not the white elephant everyone seems to think it is.
Jorge Rosa, the president of the Baixo Alentejo Intermunicipal Community, said that the money that will be spent at Montijo, if it goes ahead, is an investment that is, "completely out of the question, it is out of date."
Filipe Pombeiro, a businessmen from the Alentejo, said he had nothing against Montijo but preferred that the investment was made at Beja which, "has all the conditions to serve the country."
Beja airport, which used to be a military airbase, cost €33 million to convert to civilian use and began operating in April, 2011 since when it has been almost devoid of air traffic, serving mainly as an storage and maintenance facility.
This summer, passenger traffic picked up from a baseline of zero, with the arrival of the European airline, Hi Fly, which had to chose Beja airport as it was the only one in the country with a landing strip long enough to accept its Airbus A380.
Local authorities and businessmen in the region want to see passenger flights, as a ‘complement’ to Lisbon and Faro airports," with the local mayor, Paulo Arsenio, claiming that Beja airport, "is well equipped to serve as a back-up to Lisbon," as is Faro airport, which he claims is overcrowded.
Convinced that Beja airport "will certainly not be a white elephant," the mayor says that the Beja airport infrastructure has "a potential for use and creation of added value and employment" that goes beyond "simple passenger traffic."
"What is needed are two or three anchor companies that later can attract others to the region," hopes Arsenio, still fighting a losing battle with delusion.
Filipe Pombeiro points out, "If we have a good railroad and a good highway, in an hour and a bit we can be in Lisbon."
Jorge Rosa says that the "millions" foreseen for Montijo should be applied "in improving road and rail accessibility" to the Alentejo region, which would shorten the travelling time to Lisbon, thus ending the argument that Beja is too far from anywhere to be of any practical use.
"I am sure that this investment will still give a very big return to the country," argued Filipe Pombeiro, failing to brandish a compelling dossier of carefully calculated figures.
Beja airport is managed by the French-owned Vinci Group subsidiary, ANA, which has no interest at all in developing the facility unless the State provides decent roads and a high-speed rail link to Lisbon and the Algarve. Even then, unless the flight ticket price is sufficiently low, and hence unprofitable for airlines, passengers facing an hour or more onward journey may choose Lisbon, Montijo and Faro in preference to Beja.
