TAP restructuring must ensure medium/long term viability – minister
The minister Siza Vieira warned that the restructuring must ensure TAP's viability in the medium/long term.
Portugal’s minister of economy, Pedro Siza Vieira, on Monday reiterated that the government has few doubts about the importance of saving TAP, but warned that restructuring must ensure the company’s viability in the medium/long term.
“What we have to ensure is that TAP is viable in the medium and long term and that public support to TAP is the support that has a return. We are not putting money into a company so that in five years it will be unviable and go bankrupt,” he said on Monday during the digital conference “Resuming Portugal – International Trade,” held by TSF/JN.
Asked about the importance of ensuring the recovery of TAP, Siza Vieira said there are few doubts in that regard and hoped that it would be an investment process similar to that of CGD Bank, which would guarantee the return of public support to the airline, in the form of a loan, capital or guarantee.
TAP’s restructuring plan, delivered in Brussels in December, foresees the suspension of the company’s agreements, a measure without which, according to Pedro Nuno Santos, minister for infrastructure and housing, it would not be possible to restructure TAP.
The plan foresees the dismissal of 500 pilots, 750 cabin crew, 450 maintenance and engineering workers and 250 from other areas, and a 25% reduction in the group’s wage bill (30% in the case of corporate bodies) and in the number of aircraft that make up the company’s fleet, from 108 to 88.
