ANA Submits the 5,000-Page Environmental Study for the New Lisbon Airport, Bringing the Target Opening Forward to 2035
ANA has delivered the final Environmental Impact Study for the new Luís de Camões airport to the regulator APA — a 5,000-page file compiled over 18 months by more than 60 specialists. The concessionaire now targets a 2035 opening, two years earlier than planned, on a project priced at €7.9–8.9 billi
Portugal's long-running airport saga cleared one of its heaviest procedural hurdles this week. ANA — Aeroportos de Portugal (Airports of Portugal), the Vinci-owned concessionaire, delivered the final Environmental Impact Study (Estudo de Impacte Ambiental, EIA) for the planned Luís de Camões airport to the Portuguese Environment Agency (Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente, APA) on Friday, handing regulators the document that must be approved before a single earth-mover can move onto the site.
It is not a light read. The study runs to roughly 5,000 pages, compiled over 18 months by more than 60 specialists, and weighs the project's effects on water resources, noise, ecosystems, air quality, public health and the local economy. Its conclusions rest on fieldwork and on consultations with the councils around the chosen location — the Campo de Tiro de Alcochete (Alcochete military firing range), on the south bank of the Tagus, which will eventually replace the congested Humberto Delgado airport (Portela) in the heart of Lisbon.
The timeline just moved forward
The most striking line in ANA's announcement was not the page count but the calendar. The company now targets an opening in 2035, roughly two years earlier than the mid-2037 date that had been floated. Construction is pencilled in to run from 2029 to 2033, with the intervening years swallowed by permitting, financing and the physical clearing of a former firing range.
The environmental file is the first of two big submissions still outstanding. ANA says it will hand over the project's financial report on 17 January 2027, followed by the complete candidacy dossier in January 2028. Only once APA issues its verdict — a formal Declaração de Impacte Ambiental (Environmental Impact Statement), preceded by a public-consultation window — will the environmental green light be secured.
An €8 billion bet on the Tagus
The price tag remains eye-watering. ANA puts the investment at €7.9 billion to €8.9 billion at 2024 prices, a range the government confirmed earlier this month as the first renderings of the terminal emerged. The Council of Ministers has already earmarked funds to clear the Alcochete range, a reminder that the state and its concessionaire are now moving in step after decades of false starts.
What this means for expats
- Relief for Lisbon is still a decade out: if the schedule holds, Humberto Delgado — chronically over capacity and hemmed in by the city — carries the load until at least 2035. Summer bottlenecks are not going away soon.
- The south bank is the place to watch: Alcochete, Montijo and the wider Setúbal peninsula stand to gain the jobs, road and rail links, and property demand that a new hub attracts. Anyone weighing a move or an investment across the river should track the infrastructure plans that come with it.
- Approval is not a formality: the EIA still faces public consultation and APA scrutiny, and environmental objections have derailed airport plans here before. This week is a milestone, not a finish line.
For a project that has been debated in one form or another since the 1970s, a 5,000-page environmental study landing on the regulator's desk counts as genuine momentum. Whether the 2035 target survives contact with Portuguese permitting is the question the next two years will answer.
