The government and Sevenair have found a transitional contractual solution to ensure that the Bragança-Vila Real-Viseu-Cascais-Portimão air link is not interrupted from 29 February.
The government and the Sevenair group have found a transitional contractual solution that ensures the continuity of the Bragança – Portimão airline route from 29 February, an official source from the Secretary of State for Infrastructure said on Wednesday.
The current concession contract for the Bragança/Vila Real/Viseu/Cascais/Portimão scheduled air transport service ends on 28 February, but it was only at the beginning of this month that the Council of Ministers approved authorisation for spending 13.5 million euros to award a new concession, chosen through a public tender, a process that could take several months.
Questioned by the Lusa news agency about the continuity of the air link from next week, an official source from the office of the Assistant Secretary of State for Infrastructure said that the government and the company currently providing this service, Sevenair, “have found a transitional contractual solution that makes it possible to ensure that the Bragança-Vila Real-Viseu-Cascais-Portimão air link is not interrupted from 29 February”.
Speaking to Lusa on 8 February, the Sevenair Group’s legal representative, Carlos Amaro, said the company was willing to find an interim solution to ensure the continuity of the route until the future concession comes into force. However, at the time, he revealed that the company had cancelled ticket sales due to the uncertainty about the continuity of the air operation after February 28, the last day of the current four-year concession.
According to a resolution published on February 7 in the Diário da República, the government authorised the expenditure of 13.5 million euros for the award of a four-year concession for the Bragança-Vila Real-Viseu-Cascais-Portimão scheduled air service. The resolution provides for the launch of a public tender, with publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, to select the carrier that will concession the service.
According to the resolution published in the Official Gazette, this model “was intended to guarantee a reduction in geographical and social distancing and to ensure the mobility of citizens living in the interior and north-east of Trás-os-Montes to the south of the country with competitive timetables, journey times and prices, thus safeguarding the public interest and non-discrimination of the populations living there.”
The air route that connected Trás-os-Montes to Lisbon was interrupted in 2012 and resumed in 2015 with the extension of flights to the Algarve, with stops in Viseu and Cascais.
Related article: Air link between Bragança and the Algarve at risk