Lisbon's international airport is currently situated at Portela de Sacavém, only 7km to the north east of the city center. Indeed, the proximity of the airfield to the city is such that aircraft on final approach from the south-west inappropriately pass over a large hospital, several schools and the National Library's main reading room. It opened on 15 October, 1942, with four 1,000 metre runways. By 1954, 100,000 passengers a year were handled, 1,021,814 passed through by 1965 and 2,239,228 by 1970 when there were 34,392 movements. 1978 saw 3,168,595 passengers handled with 38,912 aircraft movements, whilst 1988 saw 4,283,545 passengers and 1990 witnessed 5,282,349. The first jet service was an Air France Caravelle in 1960 and new Jumbo facilities were installed in 1972. The airport, which lies at 114 metres above sea-level and occupies 320ha. is expected to reach capacity by c.2010 and to avoid displacing some 10,000 people there is a plan to create a new airport rather than further expand Portela, which handled almost 8,667,589 passengers in 1999, a rise of 8.8% on 1998. 9,395,761 were handled in 2000. In 1998 the airport claimed to have the fastest growth rate of any airport in the world. The normal maximum number of movements which can be handled is 30 per hour. The favored site for the new airport is 50km north of Lisbon at Ota, near Abrantes, (see below).

Portela airport has two main runways (03/21 of 3,802 metres, opened in 1962 at 3,130 metres in length, and 17/35 of 2,400 metres). Radio frequencies are 120.6 (approach), 118.1 (tower) and 121.75 (ground). ANA (Aeroportos e Navegação Aérea, founded in 1978, is the operator of the airport. ANA has a Web Page for Lisbon Airport, as well as for its other managed airports.

The airport is now completely surrounded by urban development, being one of the few airports in Europe located inside a major city. This has led to a national debate on whether to keep the present location or to build a new airport. As of 2006, Ota, 50 km North of Lisbon, was chosen as one of the sites for the new airport. In 2007 an independent study suggested Alcochete as an alternative location. Final decision will be taken by December 2007, more than 35 years after the first capacity increase studies were initiated.

In November 2006, the company operating the airport, ANA – Aeroportos de Portugal, announced an expansion plan for the current airport structures, in order to respond current passenger traffic growth trends and full capacity use of the airport, until the new Lisbon international airport is finished in 2017.

This plan involves the construction of a new terminal (Terminal 2), to start functioning on a limited basis as of 1st August 2007, and the expansion of the current main terminal, with new boarding gates, new parking positions and a more efficient use of currently existing structures. These new structures will be fully operating in 2010.

 

The new Airport's runway with a length of 2781 metres, of which 1000 metres of the runway is supported by 180 pillars, each pillars of 50 metres height (about 17 floors) is an engineering marvel. Surprisingly the runway is designed for landings of B 747 and the citizens also enjoy parking their cars below the runway.