An airport in a popular holiday spot in Portugal will axe night flights after pressure from furious local residents.
Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado Airport, also known as Lisbon Airport (LIS), will enforce a strict curfew after mounting pressure from residents living nearby, environmental groups and the city council.
Flights will be banned between the hours of 1am and 5am.
The decision is likely to affect a number of tourists as the airport handles roughly 34 million passengers per year.
The new ban was announced by Minister for Infrastructure and Housing, Miguel Pinto Luz in parliament after a working group examined the issue of night flights.
Luz stated: “The working group has already concluded and I can announce here that we are going to implement a ‘hard curfew’ that will prevent flights between 01:00 and 05:00 in the morning.”
According to the Independent Technical Commission, roughly 300,000 to 380,000 residents have been affected by the noise from aircraft with sounds heard as far north as Loures, Camarate and Póvoa de Santa Iria.
This has caused citizens to “sleep badly, classes are interrupted, medical appointments are interrupted, the smell of fuel and hypertension is also related to noise”.
Frustrated residents living nearby turned out near Lisbon airport demanding for change to night time flights.
Sérgio Morais, a representative from the platform, Aeroporto fora, Lisboa melhora (Airport out, Lisbon improves) said the groups protesting were also demanding an end to night flights, the non-expansion and speedy closure of the airports, as well as the urgent construction of a new Lisbon airport located outside the city.
The minister declared the government’s decision to ban night flights at Lisbon Airport as a “a giant step forward” to help combat the “criticism from municipalities, mayors and citizens regarding the noise caused by airplanes, as well as pollution”.
The ban could also be a catalyst for other changes including the expansion of Lisbon airport which Morias had previously called “completely scandalous”.
Morais said: “We are demanding several things, but the main thing is that this airport has to move to the location of the new airport.
“We are residents affected by this airport and expanding it is completely scandalous.”
A day after these protests, the government announced the new ban which followed multiple complaints from various groups regarding the maximum number of air movements per week which were being consistently flouted.
However, the actual date at which point Lisbon’s skies will quieten remains a mystery.
Aeroporto fora, Lisboa melhora (Airport out, Lisbon improves) said: “It’s unclear whether the ban is total or only for scheduled flights.
“In other words, it remains to be seen what happens if a flight is late departing from its airport of origin and is scheduled to land between 01:00 and 05:00: is it allowed or banned?” the platform asked.