Tourism in the North has been growing over the years and more and more tourists are landing at Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport. In 2023, Porto airport reached, for the first time, 15 million passengers, which represented a growth of 20% compared to the previous year. Given the figures, the president of the Porto and North Tourism Association insists on expanding the north airport to respond to the increase in passenger movement.

“This is not the time to ring the alarm bells, but it is approaching and I make this appeal so that what happened at Lisbon Airport and in these 50 years of discussion does not happen again,” said Luís Pedro Martins, president of the Tourism Association of Porto and the North, at the IPDT Tourism Conference 2025, which is taking place in Vila Nova de Gaia.

“Recognising the airport’s capacity to attract and grow, this is the ideal time to start thinking about designing expansions for Sá Carneiro Airport,” says the president of the Porto and North Tourism Association, also highlighting that “Sá Carneiro Airport” is a major hub for tourism in the region. Porto has the great advantage of being able to receive up to 40 million passengers, without having to change location”.