Faro airport is the primary travel hub into southern Portugal. From the western end of the coast at Lagos right along through Albufeira, Vilamoura, Faro itself and across to Tavira in the east, the international airport welcomes flights from all over Europe. The majority of arrivals however are either from Lisbon or from the UK. Despite some lower traveler numbers this year, airport owners Ana Aeroportos are set to invest around 130 million Euros over the next four years in a multi-phase expansion project.

Many tourist destinations across Europe are seeing new airport investments at the moment, in particular Cyprus and Turkey, and the Portuguese operators are aware that without new investment they will faced increased competition in the future. The new money will improve facilities for passengers, make transport access to the airport easier and increase the capacity for parked aircraft on the aprons. This will all lead to an increase in passenger capacity of 33 per cent by the year 2013. Flight takeoffs and landings will increase by a similar amount while capacity for parked aircraft will increase by 50 per cent. This will improve flexibility for flight operators using the airport, allowing them to offer flights arriving later and departing earlier.

The Portuguese Government is backing the scheme, saying that the airport needs to plan for the future when they expect a surge in tourist traffic to the area as they reduce the seasonal aspects of travelling to the Algarve and work at providing more diversified holiday offerings in the region.