Crisis emphasised importance of TAP sustainability – CEO

The CEO of TAP, Christine Ourmières-Widener, said on Thursday that the aviation industry was “greatly affected” by the Covid-19 pandemic and, with this crisis, sustainability issues have gained importance.

In her speech, in which she stressed that “the aviation industry was quite affected” by the pandemic, Christine Ourmières-Widener pointed out some steps that have been taken in terms of sustainability in the sector, taking advantage of the moment of crisis.

“All airlines have taken the opportunity of the crisis to renew their fleet”, which “has a huge impact” on greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, “because the new aircraft have better operational efficiency and burn less fuel”, she said.

And it is “what TAP has also been doing”, as it had already started “a complete renewal of the fleet a few years ago” and is now “finishing this process”, she noted, listing other measures in the area of sustainability.

At a time of crisis, “investment may have to be postponed”, but “all this investment in the fleet and the fleet’s renewal are also sustainable choices for us”, the airlines, she argued.

Because, when the crisis is over, if companies want to “be stronger”, they need to “continue to renew the fleet” and “have sustainable aircraft, because that will also be the future of the industry and the future of the cost structure”, she added.

In the same speech, at the world conference on sustainable tourism “A World for Travel – Évora Forum”, which began today at the University of Évora and ends on Friday, the chief executive of TAP also said that the crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic has been “very different from one region [of the world] to another”.

For example, she said that the reduction in demand in the US domestic market “started much earlier than in other” markets.

As for the South American market, the crisis had “a profound impact”, she indicated, highlighting that, as far as TAP is concerned, it will now have “a slow recovery, thanks to the opening for example of Brazil’s borders” as of today.

“Thank you very much for this good news for us”, the TAP official congratulated, insisting that the impact of the crisis differs from country to country “depending on whether the borders are open or not” and defending that, faced with this diversity of scenarios, airlines have to be “flexible and adaptable”.

The world conference on sustainable tourism, promoted by various entities in the sector, with the support of Visit Portugal, has over 140 national and international speakers from different areas.