At a debate on Lisbon airport, at the 4th Portuguese Tourism Summit, the CEO revealed the increase in the delays bill and said that these "€50 million could [otherwise] be returned to passengers," in terms of cheaper fares .

Neves stressed the need for details of the expansion of the capital's airspace to be made public as companies need to plan their operations based on concrete information, such as parking spaces.

In the same panel, the chief executive of airport manager ANA - Aeroportos de Portugal, Thierry Ligonnière, recalled the importance of closing the secondary runway of Lisbon airport to move ahead with capacity expansion and said that this is a decision that is not in the hands of the airport manager.

"As soon as the decision is made, we can start with the works," said the ANA CEO.

In his speech, Neves said TAP is growing by 13% and in 2019 the increase should be 14%, with "a lot of sacrifice" and "at a big cost," with the payment of legally due compensation to passengers because of delays caused by difficulties in Lisbon.

Ligonnière also acknowledged the delays and explained that the increase in traffic at the airport is being made at the expense of operating margins, and the "trade off is that it has to work like a Swiss watch."

"It's the effort we all have to make," he said.

At the debate, Jorge Ponce Leão, chairman of air navigation company NAV, noted that Lisbon airport had only not been used to 100% capacity in mid-August, because there are 13 night flights and that traffic growth is not only happening in Portugal.