At long last, Portugal’s French owned airports operator ANA is making an effort to breathe some life into Beja airport.
The site was converted to a civilian airport in 2011 but has been little used since despite its key position in the heart of the Alentejo where tourism and farming are the only two activities keeping the region ticking over.
A new agreement between ANA and fuel provider Galp is part of a plan to attract more aircraft to the airport. Lower fuel prices should mean tourist airlines will look again at running a service to Beja.
The fuel agreement was announced today by the two companies and will run for an initial two years.
The airport also will offer a raft of improved conditions to airlines, in particular for landing fees and long term aircraft parking fees.
ANA, owned by the French group Vinci, points out that this is another "example of our effort and commitment" to develop infrastructure which it considers "strategic, not only for the region but also for the country."
The facility at Beja began operations as a civilian airport in April 2011 after an 'investment' of €33 million to convert the former military air base, much of the sum remaining unaccounted for with suspicions of corruption still rife.
The airport has been largely ignored ever since with a few airlines announcing routes and then cancelling them on discovering low passenger uptake.
In a classic case of ‘chicken and egg,’ ANA blames the lack of air traffic using Beja airport on the suspension of various tourism projects in the Alentejo region. Conversely, tourist development companies and entrepreneurs blame ANA for ignoring Beja airport for over a decade instead of concentrating on turning it into the central point for inbound tourism.
There has been some charter flight activity, mainly by a German insurance company that sends its staff to nearby Herdade dos Grous for regular corporate 'thank you's' and events, but in the first three years only 6,624 passengers had been through the airport on 245 flights.
The mayor of Beja, João Rocha, agreed in April that there had been "a lack of political will to carry forward the airport's development," giving as an example the postponement and delays in the construction of the road that is meant to connect Beja to the A1 and to Sines.
ANA has been used as a convenient excuse by local government when discussing the airport but the council also must share part of the blame along with the host of institutional shareholders in the company that owns the airport which have agreed on little apart from the date of the next meeting.
The Galp agreement is one small step, but an important one if the Alentejo is to become accessible to the tourist segment that eschews traditional sea and sand holidays, preferring dreamy coastal locations and the wide open spaces of Portugal's Alentejano plains.
EDAB SA, or Empresa de Desenvolvimento do Aeroporto de Beja is owned in the following proportions:
. Direcção Geral do Tesouro - DGT - 82,5%;
. Associação de Municípios do Distrito de Beja - AMDB (actual AMBAAL) - 10%;
. Núcleo Empresarial da Região de Beja - NERBE - 2,5%;
. Empresa de Desenvolvimento de Infra-estruturas do Alqueva -EDIA- 1,25%;
. Comissão de Coordenação e Desenvolvimento da Região do Alentejo - CCDRA -1,25%;
. AICEP Global Parques - 1,25%
. Administração do Porto de Sines - APS - 1,25%
