“Since the beginning of the concession, the concessionaire has more than doubled its business volume and almost quadrupled its EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation]. However, the accumulated volume of investments, instead of following the evolution of demand and profitability of the concession, is 18.9% below that predicted by VINCI in privatisation”, reads the resolution of the Council of Ministers, which requires ANA to carry out investments at Humberto Delgado airport, with a view to mitigating operational and passenger comfort constraints.

The resolution states that “since the signing, on December 14, 2012, of the Airport Public Service Concession Agreement at Airports Located in Mainland Portugal and in the Autonomous Region of the Azores (Concession Agreement), and with the sole exception of the pandemic period, that the increase in demand at AHD has been systematically much higher than expected, both in terms of number of movements and number of passengers”.

In 2019, the best tourist year before the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of passengers grew 7.36% compared to the previous year, reaching 31.1 million passengers, “highlighting punctuality problems in a congested infrastructure”.

This year, traffic on that infrastructure is expected to exceed 2019 levels, exceeding 32 million passengers.

“In addition, the investment that the concessionaire has been making in this airport infrastructure does not prove to be sufficient to guarantee the expected and desirable response, both service levels and performance levels, given the evolution of demand”, reads the document.