AIRPORT PLANNING PROCESS. THE CASE OF THE NEW LISBON AIRPORT

The main purpose of this article is to analyse the relationships between the planning process of the New Lisbon Airport (NLA) and several planning instruments, both territorial (regional and local) and sectorial (transportation and road), during the numerous iterations in the NLA planning process. At the end of the 1960s, Portuguese authorities pondered the need of a new airport to replace the existing one at Portela. A number of locations were suggested during the planning process. Several of them were invalidated over time due to urban development or to the constraints imposed by environmental laws. This paper analyses the various planning instruments in place from 1960 until 2010 and their relationship with the planning process of NLA. The airport relocation decision is not closed yet. The documents drafted in the 1960s and 1970s reflect the dominant planning paradigms with a top-down approach strongly driven by the public administration. During the 1990s the procedure was resumed and in 2005, a new phase started with a strong influence of external stakeholders. However, due to the 2010 crisis the process was suspended. The regional planning of the last decades never revealed the ability to drive the NLA process. Indeed, the decisions concerning the airport relocation have strongly influenced the spatial planning process.