British airline easyJet welcomes the construction of a new airport in Lisbon, but the CEO, Johan Lundgren, argued that first it is necessary to ensure that the current airport meets the needs.
“We are in favor of building airports and [increasing] capacity. Even though this is an airport that won’t be ready until 2030, according to the plans, we’re positive because we’re very committed to Portugal, it’s a very important market for us and we want to continue our growth” in the country, he told the Lusa news agency today during a conference call on the results for the first half of 2024.
He stressed that it was important, in Portugal or in any other country, “to focus first and foremost on resilience, on the infrastructure itself, to ensure that it can respond to capacity and demand”.
Lundgren said that the airport in the Portuguese capital presented “difficulties in this regard”.
“Our message to all airports is to focus on the existing infrastructure and make sure it improves before thinking about growth,” he said.
The easyJet CEO extended this message beyond Portugal, lamenting that “it is not guaranteed that all European airports today” can respond to the existing level of capacity and passengers.
Portugal’s prime minister, social democrat Luís Montenegro, announced on Tuesday that the government has approved the construction of a new airport for the Lisbon region at the Alcochete firing range, to be called Luís de Camões Airport, with a view to fully replacing Humberto Delgado Airport.
The government also approved the development of a phased investment plan to ensure the increase in capacity at Humberto Delgado Airport.
