Bragança-Portimão air link is operating with a reduced timetable
Portugal’s government has launched the international public tender for the concession of the air link between Bragança, Vila Real, Viseu, Cascais and Portimão for a base value of €13.5 million for four years.
The tender, whose launch was announced in the State gazette Diário da República, was launched by the previous government on March 27 and amended on Monday, with May 26 set as the deadline for submitting proposals.
The concession contract for Bragança-Portimão ended on February 28. Since then, the current operator Sevenair has been running the air link after a “temporary solution” was found by the government and Sevenair to keep the route alive. In exhange for €750,000, the operator agreed to keep the flights going with a new timetable until June 7.
Earlier in February, Sevenair said it was planning to participate in the tender, but was waiting to know more details before making any kind of guarantee.
“The expenditure authorised by the government, around €13.5 million, is higher than before. Only by analysing the tender rules will we know if it interests us, but the government has increased the amount of expedinture, which had not been revised for 15 years. We had informed (the government) that we would not apply again with the same amount because it would be impossible,” the administrator Carlos Amaro said at the time.
For now, the air link will remain in operation with flights linking all towns on Mondays and Fridays, while on Tuesdays and Wednesdays there will only be direct flights between Bragança and Cascais and on Saturdays there will be no stopover in Vila Real. No flights are planned for Wednesdays or Sundays.
Source: LUSA
