"The Leiria Region believes that compensation measures should be safeguarded for what is the relocation of an airport to the south bank of the Tagus, which means for us a decision that significantly harms what are the economic, social and tourist dynamics of a region with enormous potential", Gonçalo Lopes told Lusa News Agency.

The Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, announced on Tuesday that the Government has approved the construction of the new airport at the Alcochete Firing Range, to be called Luís de Camões Airport, with a view to completely replacing Humberto Delgado Airport.

The executive also decided to mandate Infraestruturas de Portugal to complete the studies for the construction of the Third Tagus Crossing and the Lisbon-Madrid high-speed rail link.

Gonçalo Lopes, also Mayor of Leiria, stressed that the concerns of CIMRL "should be addressed", referring to the "maintenance of investment in the high-speed line and in the phase in which the Leiria station will be built and which should be accelerated and not compromised" in the face of "this new priority of making the Lisbon-Madrid connection".

"On the other hand, there will also be a need to obtain a set of investments in the area of mobility that will bring our region closer to the future airport", stressed the mayor, reiterating that the option for Alcochete entails a "clear loss" "in terms of time and costs" for people who will use it.

In June 2023, CIMRL defended the Santarém option for the location of the future Lisbon international airport, considering that this was the "most robust" proposal.

Gonçalo Lopes argued that this location, in addition to being "much more economical", would also "bring obvious advantages to the Centro region".

For the president of CIMRL, in view of the Government's announcement, "great care must be taken not to allow a significant part of the Portuguese population and a territory that is growing rapidly and that also needs to be looked at carefully by the Government to be harmed and its development delayed, since the financial resources allocated to this project will, naturally, condition future proposals and investments in the country".

In a press release, CIMRL announced that the Government's decision to locate the new airport in Alcochete, as well as the definition as a priority of the future Lisbon-Madrid high-speed line (LAV), "are options that must be accompanied by projects to strengthen the mobility of the Centro Region of the country to the new infrastructures".

In this regard, he pointed out the "anticipation of the second phase of the Lisbon-Porto high-speed train, the connecting section between Soure, Leiria and Carregado (Lisbon), only planned to start work after 2030".

"Assuming that the Government that the new Luís de Camões Airport, located at the Alcochete Firing Range, will be fully operational in 2031-2034, the second phase planned for the high-speed train must be completed on the same date, as well as its connection to the Lisbon-Madrid LAV", he argued.

CIMRL also announced that it will promote a meeting of the inter-municipal communities of the Centro Region with the Government, to assess "the impacts of this decision on territorial cohesion and on the level of economic development flows", given that the future airport location and the total deactivation of Humberto Delgado Airport, in Lisbon, "will have strong consequences on population dynamics, tourism and on businesses and employment, which requires an urgent response to the anticipation of this new context and respective regional imbalances".

CIMRL includes the municipalities of Alvaiázere, Ansião, Batalha, Castanheira de Pera, Figueiró dos Vinhos, Leiria, Marinha Grande, Pedrógão Grande, Pombal and Porto de Mós.

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