NAV Portugal

NAV Portugal is the air navigation service provider for Portugal. It is a public business enterprise that provides air traffic control, flight information and alerting services in the two flight information regions under Portuguese responsibility. These are the Lisbon FIR and the Santa Maria FIR. Its head office is in Lisbon, next to Humberto Delgado Airport.

Air traffic control is provided at the main airports in Portugal. These include Lisbon, Porto, Faro, Cascais, Funchal and Porto Santo on the mainland and in Madeira, and Santa Maria, Ponta Delgada, Horta and Flores in the Azores. The Lisbon Air Traffic Control Centre is next to the airport, and the Santa Maria Oceanic Control Centre is on Santa Maria island.

Airspace design is a major focus. The Flight Procedure Design service is responsible for the airspace structure of Portuguese airspace for all phases of flight. In 2009 it introduced the first free route airspace concept in Europe, after redesigning the terminal areas of Lisbon, Faro, Madeira and Porto based on performance based navigation, or PBN. It now leads the PBN transition plan in line with EU Regulation 2018/1048.

The Flight Procedure Design service is a member of several international bodies. These include Eurocontrol groups for route navigation, PBN implementation and navigation steering, the ICAO Europe PBN Consolidation Task Force, and Eurocontrol groups for landing and take off and GBAS. It carries out studies and puts into effect plans from ICAO, the European Commission, EASA and ANAC.

NAV Portugal also runs the Point Merge System in the Lisbon terminal area. In May 2024 the company made the largest restructuring of Lisbon terminal airspace, with new arrival and departure routes. It also coordinates airport slots, assigning time slots at coordinated airports and helping schedules at facilitated airports.

The company publishes aeronautical charts, with examples for airports including Faro, Madeira, Porto and several Azores airports. It also publishes traffic data and public consultations. Its stated aim is to provide safe and efficient air navigation services.

Services

• Air traffic control
• Flight information service
• Alerting service
• Airspace and flight procedure design
• Point Merge System
• Slot coordination
• Aeronautical charts
• Free route airspace
• Traffic data