Prime Minister Luís Montenegro has said today that Vinci – the owner of ANA, the Portuguese airports managing concessionaire, can do “more and faster”.
Stressing that in ANA, Vinci has its most profitable operation in the world, the PSD leader said: “I have to say, eye to eye, it is possible to do more and it is possible to do more quickly. It is possible to do more and faster in Porto, it is possible to do more and faster in Lisbon, it is possible to do more and faster in Faro,and also in the autonomous regions.”
The PM was talking at the 80th anniversary of Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport, in Maia, Porto, where he took advantage of the presence of Vinci’s leaders to make a point.
Frustrating queues have characterised Portuguese airports for far too long – and considering Portugal is Vinci’s ‘golden goose’ when it comes to revenue, Luís Montenegro clearly believes it is time to ‘pay the piper’.
For a country that “offers” Vinci such excellent profits “you cannot, with respect, expect us not to have the demand for investment to correspond precisely with that profitability…”
By this the PM was referring to the construction of the new Lisbon airport, planned for Alcochete.
With the Minister of Infrastructure, Miguel Pinto Luz, also at the event, the prime minister stressed that he wants the new Lisbon airport built “as quickly as possible and within the budget already predetermined.
“In this regard, I want to remind you here that with all the contractual instruments that link the Portuguese state to the concessionaire, to Vinci, we actually have deadlines and costs to meet, and we will not waive that either. We will not stop using all the provisions of our contract so that we can have this planning and execution carried out in accordance with the interests of the Portuguese state, the Portuguese people and economic agents,” he added.
“The construction of the new Lisbon airport must be accompanied by investment in all other airports”, he warned: namely in Porto, Faro and the autonomous regions, as it is necessary to value the country’s other airports while building a new one, so that the country can be competitive as a whole.
“Because if we are competitive as a whole, all regions will win. If we allow only one or two of them to gain a dimension and an investment momentum, we will harm the global objective, and we are not here to accept that,” he stressed.
The prime minister highlighted that Portugal can only be competitive and make a difference if there is an across the board investment in all infrastructures.
“Because that is how the country uses public resources to reflect the investments it makes in people’s lives,” he concluded.
ANA Aeroportos, owned by Vinci, predicts the opening of the new Lisbon airport in mid-2037, or, with schedule optimisations to be negotiated with the government, at the end of 2036.
Source: LUSA
