The road plans are among the most concrete-sounding parts of the July 2026 announcement, and among the least documented.
The EN118 national road passing houses in Benavente. The July 2026 road plan proposes dualling the EN118; where and how has not been published. October 2023.
“Casario próximo da Fonte de Santo António junto à Estrada Nacional 118 em Benavente”, © Threeohsix, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized to 1,600 px wide.
Getting to the airport: the proposed numbers
- about 20 minutesby train to central Lisbon (proposed)Status: Officially proposed
- 20 million passengers a yearrail passengers a year (estimate)Status: Target / forecast
- 250 kmof new roads proposedStatus: Officially proposed
- more than 50 kmof existing roads upgradedStatus: Officially proposed
Road traffic expected each day · 65,000 light vehicles · about 2,000 heavy vehicles
Each icon = 1,000 vehicles a day. Red: heavy goods vehicles.
The numbers
The Government’s summary lists 250 km of new roads and more than 50 km of upgrades to the existing network, sized for an estimated 65,000 light vehicles and about 2,000 heavy vehicles a day. ANA’s release says ‘more than 250 km’ of new roads. The difference is small, but it is a difference, so we show both.
Illustration — not to scale, not the airport design
Cars and lorries on a road and an overpass. The road schemes around the airport are proposals.
Illustration: Luís de Camões Airport Observatory (original work).
The schemes
- Links from the EN4, EN10 and EN119 to the airport.
- Connecting the A33 to the A12 and the A13.
- The IC13 between the airport, Ponte de Sor and Alter do Chão.
- Dualling the EN118 and improving the EN119, to strengthen links between municipalities on both banks of the Tagus.
What is missing
For each scheme: who owns it, who pays, whether it needs its own environmental assessment, and when it will be built. None of that is in the sources we reviewed, so each is recorded as a proposal.