Ota Airport was the planned site for the new Lisbon airport located in

Ota OTA or ota may stand for: Art, entertainment, and media * ''Off the Air'', an Adult Swim television series * Otakon, an annual anime convention in Baltimore, Maryland Electronics, science, and technology * Ochratoxin A (also termed OTA), a mycoto ...

, north of

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, the capital of

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, from the late 1990s until January 2008 when the project was aborted.

Description

The area where the future airport was to be built is occupied by a former air base of the

Portuguese Air Force , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = 1 July , equipment = , equipment_label ...

. The permanent air operations of this facility were discontinued, but it is still used as a military and technical training center. There was already a small airstrip at Ota but that was to be removed prior to construction. Completion of the airport was projected around 2017. The airport would have had two runways on the borders of the airport property and would have been able to accommodate the

Boeing 747 The Boeing 747 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner designed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes in the United States between 1968 and 2022. After introducing the 707 in October 1958, Pan Am wanted a jet times its size, t ...

and perhaps the

Airbus A380 The Airbus A380 is a large wide-body airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and only full-length double-deck jet airliner. Airbus studies started in 1988, and the project was annou ...

. Ota Airport would likely have served the airlines and their destinations that currently serve Lisbon Portela Airport. After over eight years of debate other options such as

Alcochete Alcochete () is a municipality in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 17,569, in an area of 128.36 km². The municipality is composed of three parishes and is located in Setúbal District. Alcochete is known for its bullfighting tradition ...

at , were still being discussed as a viable alternative. The deadline for a final decision was set by the Government as December 2007. Another commonly cited alternative is Alverca do Ribatejo at and the Montijo Air force base at .

Decision

The decision process has been qualified as a typical analysis paralysis. According to final governmental decision, the OTA location was turned down in favour of

Alcochete Airport New Lisbon Airport (Portuguese: ''Novo Aeroporto de Lisboa'', NAL) is the currently planned site for construction of a new Lisbon Airport to serve the Center and South of Portugal, scheduled to complement the current Portela Airport as Lisbon ...

, an area used currently for

Portuguese Air Force , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = 1 July , equipment = , equipment_label ...

exercises. The location is closer to Lisbon centre and to the Centre of mass of the Lisbon metropolitan area, with future expansions guaranteed. Planes can land and take off from different directions. Also, the site is already state property.

Transportation

The proposed Portuguese TGV high speed train would have a stop at Ota with connections to the rest of the country. As the decision is instead in Alcochete, the

Vasco da Gama bridge The Vasco da Gama Bridge ( pt, Ponte Vasco da Gama; ) is a cable-stayed bridge flanked by viaducts that spans the Tagus River in Parque das Nações in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. It is the second longest bridge in Europe, after the Cri ...

will be the main road connection, while a ferry boat and a nearby third crossing on the

Tagus River The Tagus ( ; es, Tajo ; pt, Tejo ; see below) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales near Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally west with two main south-westward sections, to e ...

would also serve the airport.

Controversy and Public Opinion

The decision process has been controversial, with defenders of the various offers arguing with all sorts of facts and visions. Local

lobbying In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agency, regulatory agencie ...

is also strong. According to polls as at November 2007, public preference is clear for Alcochete (63%) vs Ota (15%). But still lacks an

environmental impact study Environmental Impact assessment (EIA) is the assessment of the environmental consequences of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects prior to the decision to move forward with the proposed action. In this context, the term "environmental imp ...

to confirm that Alcochete is indeed the best place to build a large infrastructure like an airport, and that same environmental impact study could overturn that decision over to Ota again.

References

Airports in Portugal {{Portugal-transport-stub