New Lisbon airport faces a further delay as politics collide and previous favoured locations emerge

In the annals of the yet-to-be-written book on the 'World's Longest Decision-Making on a New Airport or Runway' , the 'New Lisbon' (Montijo) Airport is bound to figure highly.

Demanded by budget airlines especially, but damned by the presence of squatting birds (which respectfully decline to find a new home), Montijo has been thrown on the backburner lately in favour of a raft of alternatives. They include the very first suggestion - Alcochete, from 20 years ago - which has resurfaced like an ageing film star in their final performance.

And Alcochete is within bird cry distance of Montijo.

There is a very real danger here that an alternative, reliever airport for Lisbon is not going to be built in the foreseeable future - let alone a major new hub, as a government technical decision prefers.

And that scenario is made even worse by an indecisive election, which has left the parties in the minority government at each other's throats over corruption allegations, and polarised between left and right.

All this as the existing Humberto Delgado Airport is in danger of sinking to its knees under the weight of huge demand.