General Daily Briefing — Thursday, 09 July 2026
Your Air Passenger Rights When Flying To or From Portugal in 2026
Your rights when a flight to or from Portugal is delayed, cancelled or overbooked: the EU261 compensation of €250 to €600, what airlines must provide while you wait, and how to claim through ANAC, the national civil aviation authority.
Here is your Portugal briefing for Thursday, 09 July 2026 — the day's six stories at a glance:
- Polish trainmaker PESA has pulled out of supplying carriages for Lisbon's Violet Line light metro, forcing the Mota-Engil consortium to hunt for another supplier before the €598.9 million contract can be awarded.
- A new Transtejo · Soflusa ferry linking Almada to the Oeiras waterfront and Belém begins today on a six-month trial, adding a rare east–west crossing to the Tagus network.
- From the end of August, large electricity and gas suppliers must offer one-year fixed-price contracts, and vulnerable households can no longer be cut off during the peaks of summer and winter.
- EU households roughly doubled the energy they use to cool their homes between 2018 and 2024, Eurostat reports, with Portugal ninth in absolute consumption as air conditioning spreads.
- TAP resumes flights to Venezuela on Monday, rerouting to Valencia after June's earthquakes closed the Caracas airport, starting with one weekly service carrying Portuguese medicines.
- The Supreme Court has upheld convictions — including for aggravated rape — against four members of Benfica's No Name Boys claque, while ordering a partial retrial for one defendant.
Polish Trainmaker PESA Drops Out of Lisbon's Violet Line, Leaving Mota-Engil Hunting a New Supplier
The Polish manufacturer PESA has withdrawn from building the trains for Lisbon's planned Violet Line, the light surface metro that will run between Odivelas and Loures across 17 stations. It is the second supplier to exit: PESA had itself replaced China's CRRC after the European Commission ruled that Chinese state subsidies gave the firm an unfair advantage. The Mota-Engil-led consortium, which won the tender with a €598.9 million bid to deliver 12 vehicles, says it has two more European suppliers in reserve — but until one is confirmed, the contract cannot be awarded and construction cannot begin.
A New Cross-River Ferry Links Almada to Oeiras From Today, on a Six-Month Trial
From Thursday, the public operator Transtejo · Soflusa begins a new river service between Trafaria and Porto Brandão, on the Almada side, and the Pedrouços and Algés waterfront in Oeiras, with an onward extension to Belém. Running seven days a week on a six-month experimental basis, it fills a long-standing gap by adding an east–west link to a ferry network built almost entirely around north–south crossings. Officials credited quick cooperation between the operator, the Lisbon and Oeiras councils and the Lisbon Port Authority for getting the boats on the water in time for the Alive festival at Algés.
Fixed-Price Power Contracts and Tougher Cut-Off Protections Arrive at the End of August
A decree-law taking effect at the end of August will reshape household energy contracts in Portugal. Suppliers with more than 200,000 customers must offer contracts with a price locked in for at least a year, which they cannot unilaterally change or cancel. The bigger shift is protection for those who fall behind: vulnerable customers cannot be disconnected during peak summer and winter, must be guaranteed a minimum 1.5 kVA supply before any cut, and keep their social tariff automatically when switching supplier. In a declared energy crisis, the government will also be able to cap prices.
As Air Conditioning Spreads, EU Home-Cooling Energy Has Doubled Since 2018 — Portugal Ranks Ninth
New Eurostat figures show the energy EU households spend cooling their homes roughly doubled between 2018 and 2024, rising almost every year as heatwaves intensified and air conditioning spread. Italy, Spain and Greece are the heaviest consumers in absolute terms; Portugal ranks ninth, at around 1,250 terajoules — a mid-table position that reflects both its size and the fact that AC is still far from universal in Portuguese homes. As summers lengthen and more residents install units, the country's summer electricity peak is becoming as much of a planning challenge for the grid as the winter one.
TAP Restarts Venezuela Flights on Monday, Rerouting to Valencia After June's Deadly Quakes
TAP Air Portugal resumes flights to Venezuela on Monday, 13 July, more than a fortnight after two earthquakes — magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 — struck the country on 24 June, killing thousands and closing Caracas's main airport. With the Maiquetía gateway shut by structural damage, TAP will instead land at Valencia's Arturo Michelena airport, about 170 kilometres west of the capital. Service restarts with one weekly flight, with the aim of building to two, and the first departures will carry some 7.5 tonnes of pharmaceuticals from Portuguese firms to a country home to one of the world's largest Portuguese emigrant communities.
Supreme Court Upholds Rape Convictions Against No Name Boys Members, Orders a Partial Retrial for One
Portugal's Supreme Court of Justice has rejected the appeals of four members of the No Name Boys, the hardcore supporters' group linked to Benfica, upholding convictions that span aggravated rape, aggravated robbery, qualified assault, coercion, prohibited weapons and drug trafficking. The offences date to 2022, when a 16-year-old boy leaving a Benfica–Sporting handball match at the Estádio da Luz was seized and raped on nearby waste ground. For one of the four, the court found a procedural flaw in how his identification was assessed and sent that part of the case back to the Lisbon Court of Appeal; the others secured no relief.
