The Government still does not reveal the financing model or the calendar to continue with the works, but the location of the new airport will be Alcochete. The public announcement should be made soon.
The Government has already decided and will even choose to build the new airport in Alcochete, thus following the recommendations of the Independent Technical Commission (CTI) that studied the different possibilities for the future location. The solution is now final and, according to the Observer, the public announcement should take place soon. Luís Montenegro will only be waiting for the best political moment to do so.
For now, it can count on a pause that it does not have in other priority files whose execution is hostage to Parliament.
At this stage, the decision on the new airport is political and does not have to go through the Assembly of the Republic, since António Costa’s government had already modified the diploma that gave local authorities veto power over locations. Only when the new concession contract must be approved, as well as the respective concession bases, can the process be convened before Parliament. Although following the recommendations of the commission that the PSD negotiated with the Government when it was in opposition makes it easier to guarantee the support of the socialists.
The “Alcochete” option had already been raised by TVI and the newspaper ECO as the most probable. According to the technicians’ recommendation, this solution also implies the improvement of Portela in an immediate phase, as well as a dual structure in the first years.
What the Government still does not reveal is the financing model and the calendar to continue with the work. The only conviction that exists is that the State will not have to pay any compensation to ANA – Aeroportos. But it will always be necessary to renegotiate the concession contract to include the location of the new airport with the concessionaire. Contractual review that was also highlighted as a priority by the technical committee, which always warned of the enormous power of the ANA in this process.
In the past, José Luís Arnaut, president of ANA, argued that the costs associated with the work “cannot, legally” be attributed to Vinci under the concession contract. The multinational that bought ANA in 2013 was only and always available to finance with the income from the concession – and without public financing – the investment of just over one billion euros in a complementary airport in Montijo and in works in Portela.
Without ever hiding his preference for the “Montijo” option, José Luís Arnaut also left repeated warnings about the costs of Alcochete’s work for the public treasury. “ANA will do everything the Government asks of us, but the State has to decide if it wants to spend 8 billion on an airport bigger than Frankfurt or bigger than Heathrow. [em Inglaterra] –which is what I would like– or if they want to build hospitals that are not built. The taxpayers will be the ones who will pay for the work,” highlighted the former minister of Durão Barroso.
The warranty that is executed, however, is different: No money from the State Budget will be invested in the new airport.. This does not necessarily mean that other types of compensation cannot be negotiated for the much larger investment in a new airport. Starting with the expansion of the ANA concession.
One thing is certain: the concessionaire’s preference for Montijo is increasingly fragile, especially since this location saw its environmental impact statement expire this year. And ANA will not have great arguments for not accommodating the political decision on the new airport. For now.
On the other hand, it is not yet known what public investments will be made in infrastructure to access the new airport, specifically the high-speed network and the third crossing of the Tagus. The Independent Technical Commission has always maintained that these projects are provided for in national plans and that their execution did not depend on the airport.
Source: Observadora
