‘TAP should release 250 unused slots/week at Lisbon airport’
"We think that TAP should release at least 250 slots a week [at Lisbon airport]," the head of Ryanair, Michael O'Leary, said at a press conference in Lisbon.
The chief executive of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, argued Monday that TAP should release at least 250 slots at Lisbon airport, which it does not use and accused the Portuguese airline of blocking competition.
“We think that TAP should release at least 250 slots a week [at Lisbon airport],” the head of the Irish airline group said at a press conference in Lisbon.
Michael O’Leary accused TAP of blocking ‘slots’ (authorisations to take off and land in a certain period of time) at Portela because it knows in advance that it will not use them, but only releases them with late notice of two to three weeks before cancelling the respective flights.
“The government has to force TAP to release unused slots in Lisbon,” stressed Ryanair’s CEO, arguing that the accumulation of slots by TAP, which has seen its routes reduced in recent times, blocks competition and the recovery of tourism.
