The head of Portugal’s French-owned airports operator said the number of passengers through Portugal's airports should increase by over 10% this year.
The president of Aeroportos de Portugal, Jorge Ponce de León, said that he thought last year’s 9.5% increase would be unbeatable but is going for double figures this year.
Ponce de Leon was speaking at the National Congress of Hotels and Tourism in Évora and said that increases of course would vary from airport to airport with Faro staying steady with zero growth and Madeira showing a 5.5% to 6% uplift in passenger numbers.
The stars are Lisbon airport with the volume of passengers growing above 10% and Oporto airport hitting a 16% increase.
The situation in the Açores where growth is over 20% is due to the entry of easyJet and Ryanair which now fly to the islands from the UK.
Asked also about the plan to use the military Montijo Airport to the south of the capital as a second Lisbon airport, Ponce de Leon said ANA is working on the plan.
Regarding the Memorandum of Understanding for Montijo Airport which was never signed off by the previous legislature, Ponce de Leon argued that the purpose of the document simply was to achieve a consensus that the Montijo was the best solution to soak up capacity in the Lisbon area and that this has been achieved.
Beja was not mentioned, despite a recent move by ANA to attract airlines to the Alentejo airport by the offer of cheap aviation fuel in partnership with Galp.
This isolated, forgotten and ignored airport in the Alentejo's heartland is part of ANA's responsibilities but it can not act alone in promoting the region as a tourist destination.
Comments
I suspect that one reason is that Ponta Delgada has a much bigger airport than Lajes on Terceira, and by forcing low cost airlines to use Ponta Delgada, the Portuguese Government can offer some protection to SATA, which serves the whole island group with smaller aeroplanes.
It was good for us in Angra to be free of so many competing tourists, but sad for the tourist industry on Terceira to be starved of visitors in this way. The taxi drivers certainly see the opening Terceira to low cost airlines as a way to boost their economy.