Obras no Montijo não devem arrancar em 2020. Mas Portugal
tem de fazer investimento
Lusa 18-07-2020
Pedro Nuno Santos
considerou ser “difícil” o início das obras do aeroporto do Montijo ainda este
ano, mas ressalvou que Portugal não pode prescindir de aumentar a capacidade do
aeroporto de Lisboa.
O ministro das
Infraestruturas e da Habitação considerou ser “difícil” o início das obras do
aeroporto do Montijo ainda este ano, mas ressalvou que Portugal não pode
prescindir de aumentar a capacidade aeroportuária em Lisboa.
“Parece-me
difícil. Agora, que Portugal não pode prescindir de aumentar a sua capacidade
aeroportuária na região de Lisboa, não pode. Isso é evidente. Nós estamos a
passar por uma situação muito particular, mas que não vai durar para sempre, e
no dia em que nós voltarmos a ter procura, temos que ter capacidade de
resposta, que nós já não tínhamos”, afirmou Pedro Nuno Santos, em entrevista à
TSF e ao Dinheiro Vivo.
O governante
notou que, se não fosse a pandemia, Portugal estaria, neste momento, a recusar
“milhares de voos para Lisboa” e, consequentemente, a perder muito dinheiro.
Neste sentido, o país “não se pode dar ao luxo” de não fazer este investimento,
considerou o ministro das Infraestruturas, vincando que o processo tem que ser
retomado “o mais rápido possível”.
Na quinta-feira,
o presidente da Comissão Executiva da ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal defendeu, no
Parlamento, que a crise potenciada pela pandemia, que paralisou o setor da aviação,
“não retira qualquer relevância” ao aeroporto do Montijo, no distrito de
Setúbal. “O projeto entrou agora numa fase de execução. A crise mundial […] não
retira qualquer relevância ao aeroporto do Montijo”, notou Thierry Ligonnière.
Na sua intervenção
inicial, Ligonnière assegurou que, em 2019, o aeroporto Humberto Delgado, em
Lisboa, já não tinha possibilidade de gerar efeitos positivos para a economia
nacional e, consequentemente, criar emprego. Assim, no atual contexto,
“torna-se ainda mais importante para mitigar os efeitos económicos de uma crise
que se perspetiva muito grave”, vincou.
A 8 de janeiro de
2019, a ANA e o Estado assinaram o acordo para a expansão da capacidade
aeroportuária de Lisboa, com um investimento de 1,15 mil milhões de euros até
2028 para aumentar o atual aeroporto de Lisboa e transformar a base aérea do
Montijo num novo aeroporto.
Plans for new Lisbon airport opposed by local
authorities, and the Dutch (for harm to national bird, the godwit)
Date
added: March 2, 2020
There
are plans to construct a new airport for Lisbon (Portugal) as the existing
airport – Humberto Delgado Airport – is considered by the authorities to be
full. Plans have been considered for many years, but a new airport at existing
Montijo military air base, near Lisbon, got approval on 8th January 2019 when
the government signed an agreement with ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal (the
country’s airports manager). The Montijos site is on the Tagus estuary, a nature reserve where the
godwits, a threatened species, stop off on their way from Africa to the
Netherlands. There is now considerable opposition from the Netherlands, where
the godwit is seen as the national bird. The planned airport would devastate
the areas where godwits feed, and many birds would be culled if the airport was
built, for air passenger safety. There is now political controversy about the
airport, as in Portuguese law, if local councils oppose a development, it is not
permitted. The government wants to over-rule this ability, as various councils
led by various political parties are blocking government plans. Due to costs,
TAP Air Portugal, has firmly stated it would not move to the new airport.
.
Construction of new Lisbon airport threatened by
municipal veto
By Carla Jorge
Lisbon,
March 01, 2020
(Lusa – Agencia de Noticias de Portugal)
The start
of work on the new Lisbon airport (Montijo airport) was scheduled for this
year, but a law giving the local authorities involved the right to veto the
project threatens to put a brake on the work.
The
government has advocated a change in the law in recent days, which gives two
PCP (communist) authorities the right to veto the project, while Prime Minister
António Costa has already warned that abandoning the option for Montijo has
very high costs.
However,
the PSD (social democrats), the largest opposition party in a parliament in
which no party has a majority, has already declared itself unwilling to change
the law and parties such as the Left Bloc and the Livre have also indicated
that they are against the change, which puts the project back in deadlock.
In 2019,
after decades of debate over the best location for a second airport in the
Lisbon region, Montijo’s project saw progress, with the issue of a favourable
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and the reorganization of military
airspace. In addition, the government has included in the State Budget for this
year, as an objective, the beginning of construction, continuing “this
important” project and entering “its definitive implementation phase”.
The
executive thus assumed “as a goal for 2020 the beginning of construction” of
Montijo airport.
The project
is the construction of a civil airport at Montijo Air Base No. 6 (BA6), in
complement to the Lisbon airport, with the aim of distributing air traffic
destined for the Lisbon region and connecting the A12 (the southern motorway)
to the new airport.
A squadron
from Sintra Air Base 1 to Beja was scheduled to move in the spring, allowing
constraints in airspace management to be overcome, which will facilitate
operation in Lisbon until the new airport is completed.
The
agreement to expand Lisbon’s airport capacity, with an investment of €1.15
billion by 2028 to increase Lisbon’s current airport (Humberto Delgado airport)
and transform Montijo’s air base into a new airport was signed on January 8,
2019, between ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal (the country’s airports manager) and
the State.
At the end
of January this year, the Portuguese Environment Agency announced that the
project had received a conditioned favourable decision in the Environmental Impact
Statement, while maintaining around 160 measures of mitigation and compensation
to which ANA “will have to comply”, which amount to around €48 million.
Thousands of Dutch sign new petition against
Montijo airport
 |
Don’t kill our national bird: Dutch object to new
Lisbon airport
|
By Catarina
Demony, Victoria Waldersee (Reuters)
FEBRUARY
18, 2020
LISBON
(Reuters) – Thousands of people in the Netherlands have signed a petition
objecting to the construction of an airport in Portugal that could threaten the
black-tailed godwit, the Dutch national bird.
The new
airport will be located on the south bank of Lisbon’s Tagus estuary, a nature
reserve where the godwits, a threatened species, stop off on their way from
Africa to the Netherlands.“What is the point of protecting the godwits in the
Netherlands if they are weakened or even die in Portugal?” says the petition,
which has so far been signed by 26,000 people.
Portugal’s
environment agency gave the green light for the airport in Montijo last month
but said it must take steps to protect wildlife. The project has been heavily
criticised by environmentalists at home and now abroad.
Vogelbescherming
Nederland, the Dutch nature conservation organisation behind the petition, said
the Tagus estuary is a vital feeding break for the godwits.
“They eat
crop residues in the rice fields before they fly to our country to breed,” they
said. “But if the Portuguese government gets its way, that will soon be over.”
Researchers
also say birds are at risk of colliding with aircraft and will be driven away
by noise.
Writing in
Portuguese newspaper Publico, assistant secretary of state Alberto Souto de
Miranda said people should not worry because “birds are not stupid and it is
likely they will adapt”.
Thijs van
der Otter, a spokesperson for Vogelbescherming Nederland, was unconvinced.
“That’s
like cutting down a forest and saying it’ll find somewhere else to grow,” he
told Reuters. “Life isn’t that simple.”
|
Thousands of Dutch sign new petition against Montijo airport
By Natasha
Donn -18th February 2020
Thousands
of Dutch citizens have signed their names to a new petition calling for the
Portuguese government to pull back from its “ecologically disastrous” plan for
an airport at Montijo.
Concerns
centre on the future of Holland’s national bird – the black-tailed godwit –
that returns from its winter migration to Africa via Portugal every year,
feeding and resting in the Tejo estuary right next to the airport site.
Scientists
estimate that between January and February every year around 50,000
black-tailed godwits use the area.
These tiny
birds fly at great heights, the kind that would spell disaster on a busy flight
path.
The
petition, started by a Dutch birding NGO in partnership with the larger
Birdlife Europe, is “highly critical” of the government’s plan that has already
been lambasted from multiple corners, not only those concerned with the
environment.
Civil
engineers are against it, for reasons that could also spell disaster in the
short-term (click here); civic groups are up-in-arms, stressing the downsides
for a dense residential community far outweigh benefits, while
environmentalists have lodged court actions (click here).
This new
petition has already amassed over 26,000 signatures and highlights the “shock”
felt in Holland that any government could plan an airport in an area that is
(meant to be) protected by Rede Natura 2000 legislation.
Said the
NGO’s spokesperson Thijs den Otter, the area close to Lisbon is crucial for his
country’s signature bird. If there is a problem mid-way between the journey
from Africa to Holland, there is a much higher risk of ‘serious consequences’
to the black-tailed godwits’ chances of survival.
Thijs den
Otter expanded concerns to cover all birds using the wetland area beside the
airport site, stressing Portugal is risking “ecological disaster” if it presses
ahead.
But just as
TSF published this latest attack, Público gave space to an opinion article by
Secretary of State for communications Alberto Souto de Miranda whose message
was headlined elsewhere as “birds aren’t stupid”.
In fact,
texts appearing subsequently delivered the full sentence, which read: “Birds
aren’t stupid and will probably adapt”.
It’s that
last part that sends a chill through campaigners who continue to push for a
different site entirely (click here).
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