TAP spokesman, André Soares, told Lusa that the airline was the only one that used Lisbon as a hub to transfer passengers from one flight to another.

“We bring in passengers from America and Africa to Europe, they fly into Lisbon and then catch other flights to European destinations, 60% of our traffic is this kind of passenger”, he said.

Mr Soares also said that operations at Lisbon were becoming “harder and harder” because of “various limitations and because the airport was working close to maximum capacity”.

Montijo is a military base on the south bank of the Tagus and so would be much cheaper than building a new airport from scratch.