Lisbon Airport Guide: A Hub Squeezed Inside the City
Lisbon Airport runs 36 million passengers a year through one runway inside the city limits. Read how TAP's hub copes, and what the new Alcochete airport means.
By The Aviation Hub
7 min read
Updated October 20, 2026 
Lisbon Humberto Delgado Airport lies within the city boundary of the Portuguese capital, only about 4 miles (7 km) northeast of the Baixa and closer to the centre than almost any other major European airport. It is the hub of TAP Air Portugal and the main bridge between Europe and Brazil, Angola and the Portuguese speaking world. Lisbon Airport handled around 36 million passengers in 2025, all of them through a single operational runway and a terminal complex hemmed in by housing and motorways. A replacement at Alcochete is finally on the way.
Lisbon Airport at a Glance
The codes are LIS and LPPT. The field sits at 374 ft (114 m) above sea level on the plateau north of the city, with the Tagus estuary to the east and the suburbs of Portela and Encarnacao pressed against its fences. It has one active runway and two terminals. More than 400,000 people live within 3 miles (5 km) of the airport, and the approach to Runway 02 passes low over the rooftops of the city.
Lisbon Airport handled roughly 36.1 million passengers and about 227,000 aircraft movements in 2025. TAP Air Portugal and its regional arm TAP Express are the dominant carriers, with Ryanair and easyJet running bases. Azores Airlines, Hi Fly, euroAtlantic and White Airways also call it home. ANA Aeroportos de Portugal operates the airport under a 50 year concession held by Vinci Airports that runs to 2062. Terminal information and parking rates are on the airport’s official website.
How Lisbon’s Airport Came to Be
The airport opened on 15 October 1942, in the middle of the Second World War, on farmland at Portela. Portugal was neutral, so it became one of the few places where German Lufthansa and British BOAC aircraft shared an apron, and the city filled with spies from both sides. Flying boats used the Cabo Ruivo base on the river while land planes used Portela, and Lisbon’s role as an escape route was immortalised in the film Casablanca.
TAP was founded in 1945 and grew Portela into its home. The main runway was lengthened for jets in the 1960s, and planning for a replacement airport began as early as 1965. Ota and then Alcochete were chosen and then shelved in turn, the latter during the austerity years after 2008. Terminal 2 opened in 2007 as a low cost departures building.
In 2016 the city council’s proposal to rename the airport after Humberto Delgado took effect. Delgado was an air force general who helped found TAP and later stood against the Salazar dictatorship, and was murdered by the secret police in 1965. The name is official but most people still say Portela or simply Lisbon.
Runways at Lisbon Airport
Lisbon Airport operates a single runway, 02/20. It is asphalt, 3,707 m (12,162 ft) long and 45 m wide, which is ample for TAP’s Airbus A330-900s heading to Sao Paulo and the Boeing 777s and 787s of visiting carriers. The crosswind runway 17/35, at 2,319 m, has been closed to regular traffic for years and its area is used for taxiing and parking, leaving the airport entirely dependent on one strip.
The prevailing northerly wind puts most arrivals on Runway 02, which brings aircraft low over Alvalade and the city’s central neighbourhoods. Southerly winds in winter switch the field to Runway 20, with approaches from the north over Camarate and Sacavem. The single runway handles close to 40 movements an hour at peak, close to its practical ceiling, and delays spread quickly whenever weather or a runway inspection intervenes.
The most notorious accident connected with the airport was in 1980, when a Cessna 421 carrying Prime Minister Francisco Sa Carneiro crashed into Camarate just after departure, killing everyone on board. The cause remains disputed in Portugal to this day.
Terminals and Airlines
Terminal 1 is the main building and handles every arrival at Lisbon Airport. TAP checks in here, as do the Star Alliance partners Lufthansa, Swiss, United, Air Canada and Turkish Airlines, plus Emirates, Qatar Airways, Delta, LATAM and Azul. It has 47 gates, of which 17 have air bridges, so a large share of passengers board by bus from remote stands. easyJet moved its flights into Terminal 1 in 2022.
Terminal 2 is a departures only building for low cost carriers, reached by a free shuttle bus from Terminal 1 every ten minutes. Ryanair, Wizz Air, Transavia and Volotea are among its users. It has 22 check in desks and ten gates, and its passengers arrive back into Terminal 1 regardless. The TAP lounge and the ANA lounges in Terminal 1 are the main premium facilities.
Routes and Destinations
Madrid is the busiest route from Lisbon Airport, with around 1.9 million passengers a year on TAP, Iberia, Air Europa and Ryanair. Paris Orly and Barcelona follow in the European rankings, with London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Rome also busy. Within Portugal, Funchal in Madeira is the leading domestic destination at about 1.4 million passengers, followed by Ponta Delgada in the Azores and Porto.
Across the Atlantic, Sao Paulo Guarulhos is the leading long haul route at around 865,000 passengers, and TAP alone serves more than ten Brazilian cities including Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia, Recife, Fortaleza and Belo Horizonte. Luanda and Maputo connect the former African colonies. North America has TAP, United, Delta and Air Canada flying to New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago, Toronto and Miami. The longest route is TAP’s service to Los Angeles at roughly 5,700 miles (9,150 km), with San Francisco only just shorter.
Summer traffic swells with European leisure flying, though the Brazilian and North American flows are year round. Cargo is modest, with TAP’s belly capacity to Brazil the main element.
Getting to and from Lisbon Airport
The Lisbon Metro red line has a station beneath the terminal forecourt and is the cheapest sensible option. Trains reach Gare do Oriente in about ten minutes and Alameda and Saldanha in around 20 minutes, with a change for the Baixa. A single fare costs less than €2. Carris city buses serve the arrivals area, and night buses run to the main stations once the metro closes.
Taxis and ride hailing cars wait outside arrivals and reach the centre in about 15 minutes outside the peaks for roughly €15 to €20. The airport sits beside the Segunda Circular ring road and the A1 motorway to Porto, and the Vasco da Gama bridge gives access to the south bank. Parking fills up in summer, and pre booked long stay spaces are much cheaper than turning up.
Spotting and Photography
Lisbon Airport is a spotter’s delight because the city wraps around it. The streets of Alvalade south of the field sit under the final approach to Runway 02, and the Camarate area to the north sees departures off 02 and arrivals onto 20. The windows of the departure piers overlook the aprons.
Light is best in the morning from the eastern side, where Prior Velho and Portela line the field, and in the afternoon from the west. TAP’s A330-900s and A321LRs, Azul and LATAM wide bodies from Brazil, Emirates Boeing 777-300ERs and the occasional Hi Fly A330 or Airbus A340 keep the variety high. The Hi Fly and euroAtlantic fleets on charter are a bonus.
Spotting is tolerated from public streets and parks. Keep away from the fences, do not block pavements in the residential streets near the thresholds and be aware that the military area of the field is off limits.
What Comes Next
The Portuguese government confirmed in 2024 that the replacement airport will be built on the former military firing range at Alcochete, across the Tagus on the south bank. Named Lisbon Luis de Camoes Airport, it is expected to open around 2034 with capacity to grow far beyond anything possible at Portela. Until then, ANA is spending on Terminal 1 improvements due by 2027, a larger apron and more air bridges to squeeze out capacity.
The city will lose the extraordinary sight of wide bodies over its rooftops, and TAP will gain a hub that can actually grow. Lisbon Airport has a decade left as one of Europe’s most constrained and most watched gateways. See how it compares on the Airports of the World map.
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