Web Summit Jet Surge Highlights Lisbon Airport’s Capacity Crunch

A shortage of take-off slots, a handful of rejected jet requests and a public rebuke for using what the Portuguese government calls “over-the-top language” briefly pushed the 2025 Web Summit conversation from tech to tarmac. Yet behind the headlines, the numbers are small, the political stakes are larger and the chronic limits of Lisbon’s main airport once again dominate debate.

Web Summit turbulence hits the tarmac

The spark came when one of the Web Summit founders warned that executives might have to land their private jets in Badajoz because Humberto Delgado Airport was allegedly full. Within hours, Infrastructure Minister Miguel Pinto Luz countered that only seven of 102 requests for business-aviation slots were refused and labelled the complaint “an excess of language”. Government officials insist the episode shows the coordination system works, while critics see it as yet another sign of Lisbon’s inability to cope with peak demand.

Inside the numbers: 95 green lights, 7 red

According to the independent National Slot Coordinator, requests from 9-13 November shot up nearly 70 % compared with 2024. Ninety-five movements were cleared, many at unconventional hours, and just seven were declined because they clashed with the airport’s ceiling of 38 movements per hour. Cascais, Faro and Porto absorbed the overflow, limiting diversions across the border. For the government, these figures justify its claim of an “adequate response”. For conference organisers, the denied flights still fed a perception that Portugal underserves global events.

What really pushes Lisbon’s airport to the edge?

Lisbon handles more passengers per square metre of apron than any other capital city airport in Western Europe. Built for a bygone era, Humberto Delgado has no room for parallel runways and operates at near-constant saturation. When business jets chase the same daylight slots as TAP, easyJet or Ryanair, the coordinator must juggle stand availability, runway occupancy and environmental limits. Each extraordinary event—Euro 2004, Pope Francis’ visit, now the Web Summit—forces the same improvisation, underscoring a capacity shortfall that predates this government and will outlast it unless concrete is poured soon.

Ripple effects for airlines and travellers

While the heated exchange focused on corporate aviation, commercial carriers silently absorbed the knock-on effects. Airlines report longer taxi queues and occasional holding patterns whenever the runway schedule compresses. Passengers connecting to the Azores or Galicia noticed subtle delays, and crews complained of squeezed turnaround times. The absence of explicit data on TAP and its low-cost rivals reflects a bigger truth: slot scarcity at the capital cascades through the network in ways regulators rarely measure in real time.

The long runway toward a new hub

To unlock capacity, ANA/Vinci delivered in August a €300 M blueprint that would lift hourly movements from 38 to 45 by 2027 through a new apron and an expanded terminal wing. Ministers call this a “bridge” until an entirely new airport rises at Alcochete, a decade-long undertaking once a final decision is signed. The oft-touted Montijo air-base conversion remains stalled by environmental hurdles, and Beja is deemed too distant for Lisbon’s demand curve. Until bulldozers break ground, Portugal will keep managing peaks as best it can—while bracing for the next moment when aviation capacity, rather than software demos, steals the Web Summit spotlight.