In the protest action scheduled for 7pm, which will take place at the exit of the Humberto Delgado Airport metro station, citizens will demand the end of night flights, the closure of the airport, the urgent construction of the new Lisbon airport outside the capital and “a new green lung in the city”.

In statements to the Lusa news agency, Sérgio Morais, from the group, said that the initiative aims to show the discontent of people who live, work or study in areas affected by the noise and pollution generated by airplanes.

“We are very concerned about the dragging on of the situation. The competent authorities continue to ignore us. It is summer. Flights have increased and we are increasingly inconvenienced. We do not see any way forward to resolve this. We have not heard anything about the construction of the new airport”, he said.

Sérgio Morais said that the noise caused by the planes means that for citizens living in the neighbourhoods of Areeiro, Alvalade, Campolide, Campo de Ourique, Camarate, Lumiar and São João da Talha experience “bad sleep, interrupted classes, interrupted medical appointments, the smell of fuel and hypertension also related to the noise”.

“Significantly worse”

For the official, the problem has worsened “significantly in recent years”, despite the announcement last year by the Government that flights from Humberto Delgado Airport in Lisbon would be banned between 01:00 and 05:00, following conclusions of the working group on night flights.

“We noticed that they have been increasing the number of flights, especially since it is the summer season. That is why we decided to hold this gathering to alert the population about the problems,” he said.

Sérgio Morais said that the group will put up a bulletin board, a panel for posting messages.

“We will have the insomnia bulletin board, a panel where messages can be left about what it is like to live affected by the airport. It is called insomnia, but it is not exclusively about problems at night, of course,” he said.

Sérgio Morais also said that the group will request a meeting with the Government to talk about the problems affecting those areas.

In November 2024, the Minister of Infrastructure, Miguel Pinto Luz (who remains in office in the current legislature), announced that flights between 1 am and 5 am would be banned in Lisbon, as recommended by a working group that analysed the issue and delivered its final report in July 2022.

In March of this year, even before the legislative elections, the Council of Ministers ordered the National Civil Aviation Authority, the aviation sector regulator, to implement restrictions on night operations.

The PSD/CDS executive indicated at the time that restrictions on the operation of noisier aircraft between 11 pm and 7 am were in question, in addition to the imposition of a period without slots ('hard-curfew') between 1 am and 5 am, as well as the implementation of new aeronautical procedures to reduce noise.