530 days after the Government announced the ban on air operations between 1 am and 5 am, only two of the 35 weeks, counting from the beginning of 2026, met the maximum requirements for flights between midnight and 6 am.
The environmental association Zero released the data, which shows that in 33 weeks there was excess air traffic at night, maintaining the problem of noise and airport activity in Lisbon during the early morning hours.
The association counted 4647 movements at Lisbon Airport between midnight and 6 am. Of this total, 1165 occurred between 1 am and 5 am, that is, the period covered by the government's promise to ban night flights.
The law states that there should be a maximum of 91 movements per week between midnight and six in the morning, a value respected in only two of the 35 weeks considered for data collection.
August had the highest number of nighttime movements. Between 17 and 23 August, there were 187 operations during the early morning hours, exceeding the weekly limit of 91 by 96 movements. In other words, airport activity would have been 105.5% above what is established by law.














What's not clear here is why. We're these takeoffs? Landings? European flights? Trans Atlantic? If a plane is over the water is landing whether it's 1:25am or not. Perhaps it should not have left the origin airport at all. Those decisions are on airlines and air traffic control. A flight from Rome shouldn't be leaving at 11:30pm when there is no chance it arrives in the allowed window. Some explanation of the cause of these issues is needed. Simply telling people what was in a press release doesn't help.
By Rob de Santos from Algarve on 06 Sep 2026, 14:58