“It's time to be able to make the right decisions and implement them quickly. And, therefore, our position - and which is also being debated with other CIMs - is that the Government should, as it opened a deep debate on this matter in the near future, include again in the analysis the solution north of the Tagus”, in this case Alverca e Ota, said Gonçalo Lopes, who is also the mayor of Leiria.

For the mayor, the solution is one that, from an economic and environmental point of view, “was, for a long time classified as one of the best proposals”.

Practical, fast and sustainable

“If we want to be practical, fast and, above all, thinking about the economic sustainability of the infrastructure, since most users of Lisbon International Airport are from the north bank of the Tagus and it would not be necessary to build a bridge or a TGV line [high-speed train] with such urgency or for that reason, it makes perfect sense - given the crisis we are experiencing, but, on the other hand, the importance that tourism has for our economy - to consider the Alverca's and Ota's solution”, he declared.