Ponta Delgada, São Miguel, December 8, 2022 (Lusa) – The Portuguese Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies demanded today that there be completed works at the Lisbon airport to improve efficiency, since they do not expect a solution for the new airport structure to be implemented in the next years.
Pedro Costa Ferreira was speaking at the opening ceremony of the 47th National Congress of the Portuguese Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies (APAVT), which takes place in Ponta Delgada, in the Azores.
“What to do! The theme of our congress. We have lived too long surrounded by a wave of analysts and commentators, deceived by a policy of announcing measures that have no effect, driven by the voracity of news that does not correspond, later, to achievements” , considered the official.
For the president of APAVT, it is urgent to achieve “in macroeconomic growth”, in the business field “productivity and economic and financial recovery”, in the tourism sector “maintenance of economic leadership” in Portugal and international competitiveness”.
And it is in maintaining leadership and competitiveness that travel agencies fear the most risks.
“Without envisioning another economic sector that energizes the country, due to the anachronistic, shameful and disabling situation of Lisbon’s air accessibility. We have been following this process for more than ten years, we have good and well-founded reasons not to believe in a decision in 2023. And without a decision, obviously, we cannot believe in a solution that will be implemented in the next few years. ”, said Pedro Costa Ferreira, before an audience that included numerous businessmen from the entire sector and the Secretary of State for Tourism, Nuno Fazenda.
Thus, APAVT says that it only remains for them to “demand that they do what at the moment still seems possible to do, which are the works at the Portela airport, which allow improving the operability and efficiency of this infrastructure.”
“Gentlemen politicians, just let the works go ahead. They will not avoid the shame felt by all those who contributed to the current situation, but they will at least mitigate the consequences of this process, as tragic as it is ridiculous.
On this issue, the president of the APAVT stressed that he will maintain “total consonance of positions” with the president of the Confederation of Tourism of Portugal (CTP).
Francisco Calheiros has been one of the biggest critics of the lack of a decision to solve the new airport, a problem that is already 50 years old.
On October 14, Diário da República published a resolution on the Follow-up Commission of the Independent Technical Commission, which will study solutions for the new airport, chaired by Carlos Mineiro Aires.
The commission will study five solutions to expand Lisbon’s airport capacity, and could even propose more, if it wishes, according to the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Pedro Nuno Santos, at the end of the Council of Ministers on September 29.
It is a solution in which the Humberto Delgado airport remains as the main airport and Montijo as complementary, a second in which Montijo gradually acquires the status of main airport and Humberto Delgado as complementary, a third in which Alcochete replaces the airport Humberto Delgado, a fourth in which this airport will be the main airport and Santarém as a complement, and a fifth in which Santarém fully replaces Humberto Delgado.
*** The Lusa agency traveled at the invitation of APAVT ***
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Source: Observadora
