This was announced by Portugal’s Minister for Planning and Infrastructure Pedro Marques during a visit to southern Portugal’s main airport last Friday.
During a press tour of the expansion the Minister described the intervention as being of “strong impact” on the quality of the airport, making it a “practically new” facility.
March 2017 was originally pencilled in as the deadline for completion of the work, although this seems to have slipped back a few months to June or July.
The intervention will increase the capacity of the airport’s arrivals and departures terminal from 2,400 to 3,000 passengers and from 24 to 30 flight movements per hour.
Minister Marques told journalists that the new check-in desks will be ready in around one month from now, and that “by summer the essence of the work will be complete.”
He added it is necessary for Faro to attract tourists from other destinations such as the US and Brazil, who at present have to travel to the Algarve from Lisbon or Porto.
With that in mind the minister revealed national flag-carrier TAP is looking to boost its operations between the Algarve and Lisbon by eight flights a week.
Jorge Ponce de Leão, President of national airport Management Company ANA, said the number of passengers presently arriving in the Algarve via Lisbon is not yet significant, but he wouldn’t be surprised if air traffic between the two regions were to grow in future.
Work at Faro airport is expected to cost €35 million and will see the unit expended from 81,000 to 93,000 square metres.