Beja Airport flights forecast for next year

31/7/2010

Charter flights to and from Beja Airport should be up and running as of March 2011, it was reported this week, though unoccupied aircraft could land and take off from Beja for maintenance or long-term parking, ANA said this week.

In October 2009, José Queiroz, President of EDAB (Beja Airport Development Company), told The Portugal News during an exclusive interview that the infrastructure's functioning would commence "next year [2010]".

"I don't know exactly when, as it hasn't been discussed, but it will preferably be during the first three months of next year".

"I don't think it is necessary to look beyond that deadline", he said at the time.

In January last year José Queiroz told the national press that the airport was "practically finished" and would be fully completed "soon", while Portuguese airport management company ANA announced that it had been making contact with tour operators, travel agents and airlines to "promote the Alentejo and create conditions for demand for direct flights to Beja".

At the beginning of this year ANA spokesperson Rui Oliveira told The Portugal News "The airport is still in the process of being certified by INAC [National Institute for Civil Aviation], this is ongoing, at the same time other meetings are being held with companies interested in operating from the airport, but we cannot reveal more than that".

This week ANA's director for Marketing Strategies Leonel Horta Ribeiro said that the certification process, which is done in three phases, was "going normally" and should be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2011.

This indicates that commercial passenger flights could be operational from Beja as of March next year, though even if it should be given the green light, flights still rely on demand.

"The fact that the conditions are there does not necessarily mean there will be demand", Horta Ribeiro said, guaranteeing that ANA would "do everything" for Beja Airport to be "attractive enough" but it "cannot oblige airlines to operate" from the infrastructure.

The first phase of the certification process will allow commercial aircraft without passengers or cargo to land and take off from the runway and use the aircraft bays for long-term parking and maintenance, and should be completed "this month".

The second phase should see approval given for unoccupied passenger aircraft to use the civil terminal "by the end of the year".

Phase three will give the green light for aircraft carrying passengers and cargo to make full use of Beja Airport and its facilities.

Speaking to Lusa News Agency, Leonel Horta Ribeiro said that airlines, which "for congestion reasons" in airports such as Portela, Lisbon, will "find Beja Airport has adequate safety conditions to park" their aircraft.

According to the ANA representative, Lisbon Airport has an "acknowledged limitation and one of the most congested subsystems which is parking", and that "at times of great demand and peak traffic times, it is really undesirable".

He concluded that Beja Airport would offer a "good alternative" within the ANA network

 

Source http://www.theportugalnews.com/cgi-bin/article.pl?id=1072-5