Tech moguls turned away as Lisbon airport hits private jet limit
Some delegates to Web Summit technology conference are being forced to land in Spain
Tech moguls flying on private jets to the Web Summit technology conference in Portugal are being forced to land as far away as Badajoz in Spain, as the main Lisbon airport struggles to accommodate a growing number of visitors using personal aircraft.
Web Summit organisers have warned that the airport is turning away some private jets, after receiving complaints from some delegates about being required to use landing sites that are several hours’ drive away.
It is the first time the event — an industry gathering with thousands of visitors across start-ups, government delegations and technology A-listers — has experienced a bottleneck, in a sign that more of its visitors are choosing to fly in privately.
“Please be advised that there is currently a shortage of private jet slots during Web Summit at Lisbon Airport (LIS) and surrounding smaller airports,” the event organisers said. “Lisbon Airport is experiencing difficulty managing the volume of traffic, resulting in a lack of available take-off and landing slots for all operations.”
The bottleneck is partly down to more people attending the conference. Web Summit, which moved from Ireland to Lisbon around a decade ago, has ballooned into one of the tech world’s largest shows.
The number of start-ups exhibiting at the show, which spans multiple event halls and a stadium, has grown more than six-fold in the past decade to more than 1,000 this year.
But there is also a trend towards private jet use among tech company founders. “It’s the new Lamborghini,” said one person who works in the sector.
Jet rental businesses have sought to cash in on entrepreneurs wanting to enjoy the trappings of their position. One company, KlasJet, advertised “tailored private and group charter flights” to the event. “Fly smarter to Web Summit Lisbon,” its Facebook advert, posted in late October, said.
Additionally, more than 75 governments will send delegations to the event this year, either chaperoning start-ups seeking investment, or as officials and ministers seek to meet entrepreneurs working in areas such as AI — often taking government or royal jets to cater for large parties.
The event organisers said, “some guests, in particular those with larger planes, have found the only viable landing slots during Web Summit are now upwards of two hours’ drive from Lisbon, including in Spain.”
“These are circumstances outside of our control, and we apologise that we cannot do more to help secure slots. We would strongly advise flying commercial into Lisbon.”
KlasJet said that the Portuguese city was “always . . . strict with their slots, even if we’re using them quite frequently during the year”. The company said that airlines typically try to book landing slots as early as possible for major events, such as Web Summit.
Lisbon is building a new airport for around €7bn, which is due to open in 2034. The airport did not immediately reply to requests for comment. The airport has been criticised in the past over its private jet capacity.
In May, Matthew Prince, CEO of IT group Cloudflare, who is speaking at Web Summit next week and has offices in the city, wrote on X that Lisbon airport was a “shitshow”.
“There are two abandoned military bases each with twice the number of runways as LIS that they won’t even let private plane[s] use,” he added.