The mayor of insolvent Portimão council has insisted that the aerodrome at Alvor will be upgraded to National Institute of Civil Aviation standards as it prepares to receive visitors from as far away as Tras-os-Montes in the far north of the country.
Isilda Gomes said the municipal airfield will be able to receive flights as from June this year that take off in Bragança. Gomes considers the investment significant given the importance of the route to the ‘sustainability of tourism.’
The air link between Bragança and Portimao includes stops in Vila Real, Viseu and Cascais and is due to become operational on June 1st, 2105 with €7.5 million of taxpayers’ money lined up to pay a carrier to operate the route for three loss making years.
Gomes said that the dire financial situation at Portimão council, it has debts of around €160 million, will not prevent it providing the airport with the conditions required for the operation of the air service but she does not know how much it all will cost.
"We do not know what investment is needed to meet the requirements, given that this investment, taking into account the added value and the impact it will have, it is not a large one," stressed the mayor, following in the footsteps of her predecessor Manuel da Luz whose idea of a budgeting was whether to have one or two sobremesas.
"The council is available to make the necessary investment because we cannot lose this opportunity," said Gomes who either has blind faith in the success of the air service or has seen passenger number projections that the public has not been privy to.
Things that need to be upgraded at the municipal aerodrome include security systems, a full time firefighting team, tests to the runway, improved fencing of the aerodrome and the ‘implementation’ of an area for departing and arriving passengers and their luggage.
All of this will be done by June 1st whatever the cost, according to the mayor, with "some works undertaken by council employees."
To Isilda Gomes, the new, heavily subsided air service between the north and the south of the country for some reason is of the utmost importance and is central to the “sustainability of the city and tourism."
"I have no doubt that entrepreneurs will be travelling between regions, which could boost investment itself. Whether we like it or not the distances are sometimes limiting for business people who want to invest in certain areas of the country," stressed the mayor whose flight of fancy now seems complete.
The 1971 Portimão Municipal Aerodrome currently is used by aircraft pulling advertising banners along the Algarve coastline, taking aerial photos, launching sky divers, training civilian pilots, and for private flights to and from Spain, France, Germany, Holland, the UK and Switzerland.
The aerodrome director Sérgio Mendes said, "The location of the airstrip in a region such as the Algarve, with excellent weather, coupled with various skydiving events are factors that have contributed to the increase in aircraft traffic, making it the largest airfield in the south of the country."
Mendes does not hazard a guess as to whether the new north-to-south air service is a sure-fire winner, or a dead duck.
The Alvor aerodrome has had Class II certification since 2014 and a current Civil Aviation National Institute certificate for the next five years and is integrated with the National Aerodromes Network.
Whether the flood of businessmen from the north looking for Algarve opportunities will materialise or not remains to be seen but the company that is awarded the contract to fly the route is assured at least of a healthy government subsidy.
In May 2014, Secretary of State for Transport Sérgio Monteiro said that the plan has sense "in the name of territorial cohesion between the north and the south of the country." It therefore had little sense economically.
Last July, Monteiro added that "The key is in attracting passengers for this type of short hop service so it can run at a profit."
This seemed unlikely to happen as the government then announced a subsidy of €2.5 million a year for three years.
See also:
http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/2464-new-airlink-between-portugal-s-north-and-south
http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/2883-portimao-to-be-linked-to-the-north-by-a-new-air-service
Comments
With the millions needed to upgarde the airport - How is it that these kinds of subsidies are not being scrutinised by Brussels. At what stage do they become 'illegal' state support ?
If it was subsidised flights offshore to the Sottish Hebrides people would say fair enough ... it is needed.
But aren't there already intra-Portugal fast rail links, and small private aircraft available to hire - without spending scarce millions on this ? That would only ever be for 'special people' ?