TAP in hot water

TAP airline, the flag carrier for Portugal, has announced its new schedule for the coming months amid scathing criticism from the government, the president and business associations.

The airline announced that they would be operating 27 weekly flights in June and then 247 flights in July, the majority being from Lisbon.
Criticism has been heaped on TAP mainly due to the fact that the government are yet to announce the opening of the borders in Portugal and the heavy focus on Lisbon flights to the detriment of the other regions of the country.
Prime Minister António Costa has denounced the schedule launched by TAP and stated that the company has a legal duty of “prudent management” while it “lacks credibility” to launch a route plan without prior information on the strategy for reopening borders from Portugal, something that has yet to be officially announced by the government.
Costa stressed that “border management is the sovereign responsibility of the Portuguese State” and that the current Covid-19 pandemic “demanded and requires for an indefinite period of time the imposition of restrictions on circulation at land, sea and air borders”.
“There is no credibility in any route plan defined by TAP without prior information on the strategy for reopening borders defined by the Portuguese Republic”, stressed the Prime Minister.
António Costa said he was “obliged to remind the Executive Committee of TAP of the legal duties of prudent and responsible management of the company”.
This set of legal duties in the management of the national air carrier, according to the Prime Minister, “is not compatible with the definition, dissemination and promotion of route plans whose viability depends on the sovereign will of the Portuguese Republic in management of its borders“.
Earlier in the week President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, said that “he follows the concern expressed by several political parties and mayors regarding TAP’s route recovery plan, particularly with regard to Porto”.

Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa made his statement following criticism from political parties that the new schedule was composed mainly of flights connecting to Lisbon and not to other parts of the country.
This plan was criticised by the Mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira, and mayors of municipalities such as Gondomar, Valongo and Vila Real and by leaders of the PS, PCP and BE, among others.
Rui Moreira accused TAP of “imposing confinement on Porto and the North”, adding that with this route plan the airline “leaves the country, because being only in Lisbon means leaving the country”.
Also at a press conference, the deputy general secretary of the PS, José Luís Carneiro, challenged TAP to correct the schedule that has been made public, considering that the decision of the airline’s executive committee to reduce flights and destinations “damages the national interest”.
The PSD president, Rui Rio, considered that TAP is assuming itself as a regional air carrier, confined to the former province of Estremadura, which is why it cannot have the support usually given to a national strategic company.
“If that is the case, as TAP says, then we are not dealing with a national company, but with a regional company, more or less confined to the former province of Estremadura, greater Lisbon. A company that does not respond to Faro airport, from Funchal, Ponta Delgada and Porto as it should be, then it is not a national company, but a regional one “, claimed the PSD president.
Rui Rio, ex-mayor of Porto, later argued that “a regional company cannot have the support that a company that is strategically important for the country as a whole” has.
“If TAP understands that it should only serve an airport, I think it has set itself aside in relation to being a national company. This is clear to me,” added the social-democratic leader.
The Business Association of Portugal (AEP) has also criticised TAP’s flight resumption plans, accusing the company of “not looking at the country as a whole” and challenging the Government “to offer support only if the company adopts another strategic option”.
“In doing so, TAP is not earning the country’s commitment and the State’s commitment. The Government must demand from TAP that in order to receive any support it must be a national airline and must consider the country as a whole and must have a strategic option that looks at the country’s interests “, said the president of AEP, Luís Miguel Ribeiro.
The official considered that “there is no point in maintaining TAP at any cost or at a very high cost” if it “does not give the country the necessary service” and shows “commitment”.
For Luís Miguel Ribeiro “at a time like this when the difficulties caused by this pandemic situation are known”, this recovery plan shows that TAP “is providing a bad service to the country”.
“If at a time like this when companies are experiencing enormous difficulties, a national flag company, in which the Portuguese State has 50 percent of the share capital, if it is not on the side of companies and the country, it is providing a bad service to the country”, said the president of AEP, stressing that “mobility is a very important factor in the competitiveness of companies”.