Cascais Aerodrome Private Jet Movements Double Since 2019 to About 2,500 as New Control Tower Opens
Why It MattersPrivate jet demand in Greater Lisbon is concentrating at a smaller aerodrome that now needs tower, security and passenger infrastructure, showing how overflow from a congested hub reshapes where business aviation grows.
What happened
The Cascais municipal aerodrome at Tires, on the Lisbon coast, handled about 2,500 private jet movements in 2025, double the 2019 level and the highest figure on record. Cascais mayor Nuno Piteira Lopes announced the number at the inauguration of a new control tower on Wednesday, 21 October 2026. 2019 is the reference year for aviation, the last before the pandemic.
The tower represents an investment of more than 8 million euros shared between the Cascais council and NAV Portugal, the air navigation services company, whose share is 5.4 million euros. The structure is almost 30 metres long and offers broader visibility over the runway and its entire manoeuvring area. It is equipped with ATIS, the system that automatically transmits operational information to aircraft, and TWRATM, NAV Portugal's system for managing flight plans at control towers. It also has radio and radar contingency systems and a fully equipped supplementary working position.
NAV Portugal president Pedro Ângelo said it is the first of a new generation of control towers, with investments in preparation for the current Lisbon airport and for Funchal in Madeira, where the control tower is to move to allow an expansion of the passenger terminal. Infrastructure Secretary of State Hugo Espírito Santo said growth at Cascais is part of reinforcing response capacity in Greater Lisbon and takes some traffic away from the congested Lisbon airport. According to data from mid-2025, Tires accounted for 75 percent of jet movements in Greater Lisbon.
Security and the wider investment plan
Tires is the only aerodrome outside the ANA-concessioned airport network that can receive flights from outside the Schengen area, which required a stronger security presence. Since 2025, PSP, PJ and passenger-control teams have been present daily.
The council has a plan of more than 10 million euros in investments. The control tower and a new fire station are both completed; a new passenger terminal and a new road access to the A5 motorway are still to come. The council also aims to invest in pilot training, where TAP has already installed a training centre, and in a partnership with Universidade Nova.
Industry impact & what to watch
Cascais illustrates a familiar dynamic in business aviation: when a primary airport is congested, private jet traffic migrates to a secondary field, and that field then has to build the services the primary one already had. Doubling movements since 2019 has pushed Tires from a municipal aerodrome toward a role the Lisbon region now treats as part of its capacity plan, with a tower, permanent border and police presence, and non-Schengen handling.
For operators, the practical significance is that a single aerodrome carrying three-quarters of regional jet movements becomes a concentration point. Slot availability, ground handling capacity and the pace of terminal construction determine how much more traffic it can absorb, and the 2,500-movement figure is the baseline against which those additions will be judged.
The next milestones are the ones the council has already named: the new passenger terminal and the road access to the A5 motorway. Delivery of those two projects will show whether passenger-side infrastructure keeps pace with the airside upgrade completed this week.
