The airport manager announced that from 6 January work will begin on the creation of two rapid runway exits at Lisbon's Airport, which implies the closure of the infrastructure between 11.30pm and 5.30am until the end of June.

Speaking to Lusa, the chief operating officer (COO) of TAP, Ramiro Sequeira, said that the company has some reservations about the work that will begin, particularly on runway 03.

The main runway of the Lisbon Airport is known in aeronautics as runway 03/21.

"For runway 21 we are conceptually 'ok', for runway 03 we identified that the design was not great," said Ramiro Sequeira.

Questioned by Lusa, an official source of ANA said that the layout of this fast track (03) was adjusted to allow a longer exit of the runway, as desired by TAP, in a second phase of the work, thus enhancing a greater use by the aircraft that make up the TAP fleet.

The same source added that, regardless of the rate of use of this quick exit by TAP, the solution adopted will allow an overall reduction in the average runway occupancy time and, consequently, operational improvement of the airport.

The TAP director said that the company claimed that it will not use it, but there may be companies that use it, justifying that if it is not used it is for technical reasons, which have to do with the configuration of the aircraft (the TAP planes are heavier and larger than those used by other companies).

In turn, ANA's official source said that it has been gathering positive feedback from other relevant airlines on the operation of Lisbon airport, which intend to use the proposed quick exit, providing confidence in obtaining enough runway quick exit use to observe relevant operational improvements.

The airport manager confirmed that the master development plan has a second phase consisting of an extension of the rapid exit and its connection with a second taxiway parallel to the runway'.

ANA's official source added that the completion of phase 02 is conditional on the relocation of infrastructure and the use of land that is currently part of the military area of the airport.

When the works were announced, the Portuguese airport manager said that it would start this work to improve the efficiency of the operation, achieve greater fluidity in the circulation of aircraft, reducing travel and CO2 emissions.