“We are going to start this year with the insulation of the facades of sensitive buildings”, announced the executive president of the airport management company of the Vinci group, Thierry Ligonnière, in a hearing in the Assembly of the Republic, at the request of the PSD parliamentary group.

According to the official, ANA will proceed with the financing of the insulation of 22 particularly sensitive buildings, in the municipalities of Lisbon and Loures, covering two schools, two nurseries, 11 units of the Centro Hospitalar Psiquiátrico de Lisboa, two buildings of the ISCTE –Instituto University of Lisbon, a pavilion of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Lisbon, a study academy, two health buildings and a Youth Support Centre.

Also present at the hearing, the chairman of the Board of Directors of ANA, José Luís Arnaut, referred that the program for the insulation of buildings was delayed, due to the pandemic, but that “it is now important to make up for lost time”.

Those responsible recalled that the noise action plan is in force from 2018 to 2023, contemplating the insulation of facades, but reiterated that the financing of the measure must respect the polluter-pays principle.

“Our approach from the beginning has been to say that the polluter pays principle needs to be applied, mainly because […] the only way to really create a positive response from whoever is at the source of this noise, which in this case are the airlines, planes. The infrastructure receives the planes, but does not emit noise, what we have to do is influence good behaviour on the part of the airlines”, defended Thierry Ligonnière.

For the airport manager, the evolution of aircraft technology already allows the reduction of noise and, therefore, in his opinion, airlines that have an older fleet should pay more than those with a more recent fleet.

According to José Luís Arnaut, the Minister for the Environment and Climate Action, Duarte Cordeiro, expressed his willingness to analyse the ANA proposal.

As for the conclusions of the working group created by the Government to analyse the noise inherent in the operation of Humberto Delgado Airport, which affects almost 400,000 people in the municipalities of Lisbon, Almada and Loures in terms of night noise, ANA considered that the proposed measures, including the ban on flights between 01:00 and 05:00 seems “balanced”.