The commencement of weekly charter flights between Paris and Beja airport in Portugal’s Alentejo region has been postponed.
The plan to carry French tourists to and from the region may still go ahead in May this year according to the French-owned airports operator ANA which is in charge of Beja airport.
"According to information given to ANA, these flights are being rescheduled and will start in May but everything will depend on the operator, GPS Tour," said an unconvincing ANA spokesman today.
The new Paris-Beja route was announced with much fanfare last September and was to spearhead a move to promote the Alentejo to French travel agents, tour operators and business groups. The deal involved Turismo de Portugal, the French airline Aigle Azur and GPS Tour.
According to the ANA in the past three years Beja airport has been visited by just seven airlines with 245 flights, most of which were charter flights, and most of those were organised by the German insurance company that owns Vila Vita in the Algarve and Herdade dos Grous near Beja. This German charter deal represented 93% of the chater air traffic landing at Beja in 2012.
Beja airport costs €33 million and remains almost empty day-to-day. The postponement of the French route is another blow to the regional economy and those businesses that await the growth of tourism in the Alentejo.
Whether GPS Tour will fly in May is hard to divine as the Portuguese director of GPS Tour declined to comment.
See also: http://www.algarvedailynews.com/news/2024-ana-sidelines-beja-airport
