The President of TAP, Miguel Frasquilho, has joined the criticism already levelled by the head of the Portuguese Tourism Confederation, (HERE) stating that Lisbon’s airport will become the worst airport in the world for punctuality in a couple of years unless something is done to alleviate the pressure.
Frasquilho warned that, "if nothing is done, in two or three years, Portela Airport will, in terms of punctuality, the worst of the world,” adding that the punctuality stats showed a figure below of 50% so far this year.
Lisbon airport needs, "important improvements" until such time as the second airport at Montijo is operational, which the government says will happen in 2022 but observers already are pointing out that the environmental reports have not been completed and the building process at Montijo has not started, nor have additional transport links to and from Lisbon central been planned or executed.
TAP is angry that its poor punctuality figures and bottom of the league ranking, are due to the poor performance of Humberto Delgado airport's management company, the French owned ANA.
Miguel Frasquilho has demanded short-term improvements, taking into account the fact that the infrastructure is already "quite congested."
"This year Humberto Delgado Airport in Lisbon is expected to handle nearly 30 million passengers. This will be a new record, but attention is drawn to the fact that the structure already is very congested and therefore the necessary improvements have to be made," said the airline chief.
