No more haggling at Lisbon airport?

Lisbon’s airport taxis now have fixed fares. It’s Friday, 16 October. Twenty-eight degrees. Air quality: 55 (Moderate). Here’s what you need to know.

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LISBON AIRPORT TAXIS NOW HAVE FIXED FARES: €16 OR €19 INTO THE CITY

Since yesterday, taxis from the rank at Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado Airport charge fixed fares to anywhere in the city. On weekdays during the day, a ride costs €16 or €19, depending on where you’re going. At night, from 10pm to 7am, and at weekends and on public holidays, those fares rise to €20 and €23.

The city is split into two zones. Zone 1, at €16, covers areas including Parque das Nações, Alvalade, Areeiro, Avenidas Novas, Lumiar and Olivais. Zone 2, at €19, covers the centre and historic districts, including the Baixa, Chiado, Bairro Alto, Belém, Alcântara, Estrela and Campo de Ourique.

The scheme follows repeated complaints about overcharging and drivers refusing short journeys, especially from foreign visitors. When police inspected the airport rank in August, they found 67 infringements among about 100 taxis checked. The agreement was signed in September by Lisbon City Council, ANA, the airport operator, and the Lisbon Tourism Association, after talks with two taxi associations.

Drivers in the scheme can’t refuse a journey, must accept card payments and vouchers, and have to keep their cars clean and treat passengers politely. There’s even a dress code: no flip-flops, shorts or sleeveless shirts.

It’s not fully up and running yet. Drivers only started being accredited yesterday, the number-plate recognition system at the rank isn’t working yet, and the signs showing the fares in arrivals and outside the terminal won’t be up until early November, when the scheme should be fully in place. The fixed fares also only apply to rides from the airport rank to destinations inside the city of Lisbon, so nearby areas like Moscavide, Sacavém and Prior Velho aren’t covered, although the taxi federation wants them added.

Next time you land, or you’re telling visitors how to get into town, check which zone you’re heading to. Until the scheme is fully running, confirm the fixed fare with the driver before you set off, and pay by card if you can.

Bottom line: a taxi from the airport into Lisbon now has a set price, and once the checks and signs are in place in November, there should be far less room for overcharging.

⚡ QUICK HITS

Workers and pensioners on the mainland will have half the usual income tax taken from their November pay, including Christmas bonuses paid that month. The one-month cut was confirmed in an official order published on Wednesday, and normal withholding returns from 1 December. For a single employee earning €1,500 gross a month, the tax withheld drops from €168 to €84, taking net pay to about €1,250, according to calculations by the business newspaper ECO. Single employees earning more than €20,221 a month, married employees above €20,468 and pensioners above about €18,000 don’t qualify, and nor do residents of the Azores and Madeira. It changes how much tax comes out of your pay in November, not how much you owe for the year, which is still settled in your annual tax return.

Porto has been voted Europe’s friendliest city, with Lisbon second. The ranking comes from the readers of the travel magazine Condé Nast Traveller in its 2026 Readers’ Choice Awards, with Amsterdam, Stockholm and Valletta completing the top five. The magazine singled out Lisbon’s people, praising the city’s youthful, inclusive feel, its café culture and the street parties during the Santo António festival in June.

Six months of fully paid parental leave has moved a step closer. On Tuesday, a parliamentary working group approved a deal between the governing PSD and the Socialist Party (PS) that would let parents take five months of leave at full pay without sharing it, or up to six months at full pay if they share it. Currently, full pay only covers 120 days, or 150 if the leave is shared. A proposal from the hard-right Chega to apply the new rules to leave already granted was rejected. The law still has to complete its passage through parliament, so parents expecting a baby should plan under the current Social Security rules for now.

Health Connection - This World Spine Day, Show Your Back Some Appreciation

If you’re sitting down reading this and you have a spine, this message is for you.

Your spine supports your whole body, yet most of us only think about it once something hurts. Nagging back or neck pain, stiffness after long days at a desk, posture you’ve been meaning to fix, or simply wanting to know where you stand: those are the reasons people book in at Health Connection, a chiropractic clinic in Miraflores where appointments are available in English.

Today is World Spine Day, and to mark it, the clinic is offering an exclusive deal for Lisbon Letter readers: half price on its full initial evaluation, €60 instead of the usual €120.

This isn’t a quick once-over. The evaluation is spread over two one-hour appointments on separate days, so the chiropractor has time to examine you properly before making recommendations. It includes chiropractic examinations, a consultation with the chiropractor, a written report with personalised recommendations, and your first adjustment. You leave knowing what’s going on with your spine and what to do about it.

To claim the offer, email the clinic by 22 October and mention the Lisbon Letter World Spine Day offer.

→ Book your evaluation here ←

You’ll find the clinic at Avenida José Gomes Ferreira 9, Edifício Atlas I, in Miraflores, opposite the Carris building.

We only partner with businesses we think genuinely help our community. If this is useful to you, or if you know someone whose back could use some attention, every click and every share goes a long way to keeping this newsletter free every morning.

🍽️ SPOT OF THE DAY

NDUJAME (BAIXA)

Nduja is a soft, fiery sausage from Calabria, in the toe of Italy, made from the fattier cuts of pork with Calabrian chilli and smoked for about two months. You don’t slice it, you spread it. NdujaMe, which opened in September on Rua do Crucifixo, a few steps from the Baixa-Chiado metro, is built around it. It’s the third outpost of Giuseppe Pezzano, a proud Calabrian who has lived in the US for over 20 years, after Seattle and Utrecht. It fills two narrow floors, and downstairs the walls are covered in collages by the Portuguese artist Alexandra Prieto, made from book pages and illustrations of Italian dishes.

The sourdough focaccias are the main event, and each one is a meal. The nduja special, with spianata salami and caciocavallo cheese, is €11, and if you’d rather skip the heat, there’s mortadella with buffalo mozzarella, rocket and pistachio for €12.50. To share, the Calabrian board for two, at €18.50, comes with a little clay pot of nduja kept warm over a candle, with Tuscan bread for spreading. There’s tiramisu with a splash of ginja, and the cured meats are sold by the kilo to take home.

Worth knowing before you go: it’s open from Tuesday to Sunday, 11am to 7pm, so think lunch or an early-evening drink rather than dinner. It’s walk-in only, with no reservations. Nduja is properly spicy, though it mellows when mixed with mayonnaise.

→ Find them here ←

Insider tip: order a drink. The cocktails, from a bellini to an Aperol spritz, are all €8.50 and come with a free taste of the charcuterie, so it’s an easy way to try the nduja before committing to a whole focaccia.

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See you tomorrow morning.