In a statement, Zero — Associação Sistema Terrestre Sustentável asserts that “actions and works executed since 2017 to expand the airport capacity in the air, on the runway” and in the parking at Humberto Delgado Airport, “are allowing flows higher than its officially declared capacity of 38 movements per hour during many periods of the day”.
The association has repeatedly requested an environmental assessment, which has never been conducted.
“Since June, 28% of the operating hours in the unrestricted period from 06:00 to 00:00 have already exceeded 38 movements, with 18% of the hours registering over 40 flights, a peak of 45 movements, and 4.3% of the hours recording even more than 42 flights,” according to a note sent to Lusa.
The non-governmental organization (NGO) emphasizes that the situation “occurs repeatedly,” in a process “in defiance of the legal imperatives that should mandate an Environmental Impact Assessment, with unsustainable environmental consequences for the city and surrounding municipalities.”
The analysis focused on all passenger and cargo flights (except private jets and military aircraft) originating or destined for the airport, between June 1 and August 22, with an emphasis on the period between 06:00 and midnight, which is not subject to the restrictions imposed by the ordinance that establishes an exceptional regime associated with noise.
The NGO found that “on 19 occasions there were periods longer than two consecutive hours with more than 38 movements each.”
This record “suggests that the closure of the cross runway in 2017, the construction of the two rapid exits in 2020, and more recently, the improvements in the air navigation system have already allowed the increase of parking capacity, runway, and air corridors beyond the official capacity.”
“The entire process is being conducted without any assessment of its impact on the health of hundreds of thousands of people — the Portuguese Environment Agency only assessed in a decontextualized manner the increase in terminal capacity, which it approved,” it criticizes.
The organization draws “attention to two sequences of four hours with 40 or more movements every hour, presenting an average of 41.5 movements in these periods (June 29 and July 30, from 19:00 to 23:00 in both cases).”
Zero also “counted 419 hours with more than 38 movements (28% of the total hours considered)” and, in the late-day peak hour (18:00-21:00), the average movements per hour “exceeded the declared capacity of the airport, reaching 38.1, with the busiest hour between 19:00 and 20:00 with 38.5 movements” on average.
“On 265 occasions, residents daily affected by unhealthy noise levels above the legally permitted endured more than 40 hourly movements, which is 18% of the total hours,” it notes.
Additionally, “on average, an airplane every 100 seconds disturbed the well-being of Lisbon’s citizens and the surrounding councils, with a peak of 699 flights in a single day (August 3), meaning an airplane every 98 seconds landing or taking off.”
“In periods with sequences above 38 movements/hour, an airplane every 87 seconds made the windows of many houses in Lisbon, Almada, Loures, and Vila Franca de Xira tremble,” it highlights.
With these “calamitous data,” Zero hopes the Administrative Supreme Court will rule urgently on the request for annulment of various acts, filed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, given the “need to submit all actions and works” executed “since 2017 to a rigorous assessment,” in light of “the increasing intensification of damage to human health.”
The NGO considers that “hell descends to earth during the night for many citizens of the Lisbon region” and that the periods 23:00-00:00 and 06:00-07:00, without any restriction, “need limits.”
In the last hour of the day, “an average of 32 movements were recorded, with some days when even during this hour the airport operated above the declared capacity” — 39 on June 8, 40 on July 16, 39 on August 4 –, while between 06:00 and 07:00, “an average of 32.3 movements/hour” was recorded.
“Given these staggering data, it is imperative that the Government and the authorities begin immediately to evaluate flight restriction measures in these two hours, without which it will be difficult to protect the sleep and health of affected citizens while the current Lisbon airport is not definitively closed,” it argues.
During the period under review, there was not a single week in which, from 00:00 to 06:00, the “stipulated maximum of 91 movements in legislation was complied with, with an average of about 150.”
Therefore, the NGO “is impatiently awaiting a tightening of the sanctioning regime so that illegality no longer pays,” and that a resolution from the Council of Ministers is “effectively applied in early November,” ending flights between 01:00 and 05:00, and prohibiting noisy planes in the period 06:00-07:00 and the last hour of the day.
