The environmental association Zero has filed a complaint with the National Civil Aviation Authority (ANAC) to denounce excess night air movements at Lisbon Airport which they claim reaches double the legal limit on a weekly basis.


As part of the campaign to “alert and sensitise the impact of aircraft noise in the city of Lisbon” Zero monitored the number of aerial movements (landings and take-offs) at night, concluding that during ten days, seven were above the stipulated daily maximum.


According to noise legislation published in 2000, between 12am and 6am it is forbidden to have any air movement at Lisbon airport but an exception regime published in 2004 allows a maximum of 91 weekly and 26 daily movements. However Zero affirms in a statement that in cooperation with the site flightradar24.com and with direct observation over ten days (between 5 July and 14 July 2019) seven of those days exceeded the daily maximum.


Zero says “given the very significant number of citizens affected by aircraft noise at Humberto Delgado Airport during the night, it must be completely restricted to any movements (except during an emergency) during a night time over six hours”


Zero is asking for a more active position on this issue, recalling that at the beginning of the year the Portuguese Government signed a new agreement with ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal, which includes increasing the capacity at Humberto Delgado Airport in Lisbon with a significant increase in both the number of passengers (30 million to 42 million per year) and in the number of movements. “The next 40 years can’t be decided irresponsibly. The function of the airport, serving the Lisbon region and the country, is too fundamental to the economy, tourism and development but also to the health of those who live nearby to be decided with so little thought. Zero requires that the subject be widely debated because silence is anything but what exists in the vicinity of Portela.”