Humberto Delgado Airport, Lisbon

Having decided to go whale watching in the Azores, I needed to get to the starting point in Horta on the island of Faial. This meant flying from the Lisbon Humberto Delgado Airport, with Azores Airlines.

Humberto Delgado Airport (IATA: LIS, ICAO: LPPT), is owned by the Government of Portugal and operated under a 50-year concession by Vinci Airports since 2012 (Vinci also manages Belfast International Airport, Orlando-Sanford Airport and owns London Gatwick Airport).

The airport was opened on 15 October 1942 amid World War II, and initially coexisting with the Cabo Ruivo Seaplane Base. The runway was upgraded in the early 1960s allowed jet operations, and Terminal 2 was inaugurated in August 2007. Between 2007–2013, expansions included a new Metro station, additional boarding gates, a shopping area, and airbridges. Terminal 1 expansion began in December 2024, aiming to accommodate up to 50 million annual passengers by 2027.

The airport is the 8th busiest in the EU in late 2024 with ~33.64 million passengers, and is the busiest single-runway airport in mainland Europe.

A completely new airport (“Luís de Camões Airport”) is planned to open around 2034 to alleviate congestion.

The airport was officially renamed Aeroporto Humberto Delgado in 2016 to honour General Humberto Delgado (1906–1965), a key figure in Portuguese history. It’s important to remember that Delgado was a general in the Portuguese Air Force and an early and outspoken opponent of the Estado Novo dictatorship under António de Oliveira Salazar. He became widely known after his courageous run in the 1958 presidential election, where he famously declared, “Obviamente, demito-o!” (“Obviously, I’ll sack him!”), referring to Salazar. This bold challenge marked a turning point in public resistance.

After the election, which was widely seen as rigged in favour of the regime’s candidate, Delgado was forced into exile, living in Brazil and later Algeria. In 1965, he was lured across the Spanish border and murdered by agents of Portugal’s secret police (PIDE) in a covert operation. His body was found in a forest near Badajoz.

Getting to the airport

I had pre-booked the flight to Faial (airport Horta) with Azores Airlines. I had also decided to spend some days in Lisbon, and had booked a room in the “Hotel Pessoa”. In fact I had booked a stay in the same hotel both before and after my trip to the Azores, and I had left my car safe in their underground garage.

See my review “Hotel – Pessoa”.

My flight to Horta was at 07:45, with a check-in opening at 06:00. The hotel mentioned that the trip could take up to 45 minutes depending upon traffic. The hotel booked me a car to the airport for 05:15, for €25.

In reality the trip to the airport was estimated to take at least 25 minutes (approx. 8 km). But early in the morning there was no traffic, however the airport was surprisingly crowded.

On my return trip back to my Lisbon hotel, the early afternoon trip took around 40 minutes, and could easily have taken longer.

Airport Departures

I must admit I liked the airport main entrance, see the feature photo. Having bought priority access I was able to check-in and go through security so quickly that I was standing waiting to enter the ANA lounge at 05:50.

After as long walk through “duty free”, I think my gate was in S, where above we can see the departure area with the shops, etc. The lounges were on the upper floor.

I think Terminal 1 handles all arrivals and most departures, including Schengen and non‑Schengen flights, and Terminal 2 deals mostly with low-cost carriers. Gates S are in the South pier of Terminal 1.

The ANA Lounge

There are two lounges in the airport, the TAP lounge which opens at 05:00, and for all other carriers there is the ANA lounge, which opens at 06:00.

The lounge looked functional, nothing more. Above we can see the breakfast area. It was a very conventional and offered a limited continental breakfast. The coffee machines were slow.

Airport Arrivals

Arriving in the early afternoon the airport was crowded. Luggage pickup was slow. I had ordered an Uber, and the app was quite good in leading me to the underground parking area for the pick-up. Traffic was dense.