Porto airport is the third best in Europe

The Francisco Sá Carneiro Airport in Porto, was awarded by ACI - Airports Council International as the third best European airport in 2015.

This is the third consecutive year that the airport infrastructure has received this award. In a statement, ANA reports that, from 2006 to 2011, Sá Carneiro was in the top three places and was considered the best European airport in 2007.

"This is our 9th prize in the past nine years and it was particularly important for us when Porto airport surpassed the eight million passenger milestone" said the President of the ANA board of directors, Jorge Ponce de Leão.

The prize was awarded based on a passenger survey. Waiting times, staff courtesy, cleanliness and comfort were some of the indicators used in the questionnaire.

ACI represents about 450 airports in 45 European countries, responsible for about 90% of the air traffic in Europe and the annual traffic of more than 1.7 billion passengers.

Francisco Sá Carneiro airport has doubled the number of passengers and routes in the last ten years.

In 2015, the airport of Porto reached 8.1 million passengers, an increase of 16.7% over the previous year, only second to the Azores which benefited from air transport liberalization and flights operated by low-cost carriers.

In the last ten years, the number of passengers at the Francisco Sá Carneiro airport rose from 3.1 million in 2005 to 8.1 million in 2015, according to data from ANA - Aeroportos de Portugal.