TAP’s new CEO ‘well aware’ of challenges, need to restructure airline

The new CEO of Portugal’s national airline, TAP, who takes office on Friday, said that she was “well aware” of the challenges facing the airline and believed in the importance of continuing to implement the plan to restructure the state-owned company, which is receiving an injection of state aid approved by the European Union authorities on that basis.

“I am well aware that covid-19 has been and will continue to be a challenge for our industry, that the last year has been particularly difficult for TAP and its employees, and that we are living through a crucial moment for TAP, which we will overcome together, just like other challenges in the past,” said the new CEO, Christine Ourmières-Widener in a video message to staff that Lusa has seen. “That is why I believe it is very important that we continue with the general strategy and the implementation of the restructuring plan.”

In the video Ourmières-Widener, an aeronautical engineer by training, described herself as “passionate about the aviation industry” – an industry that she joined 30 years ago.

She promised that the new executive board would “communicate in more detail, in the coming months, the different stages” of the plan to restructure the company.

“I am aware that there are many challenges in the restructuring plan,” she said. “There are difficulties, but also many opportunities in our path over the next few years.”

The new CEO said that in addition to implementing the plan, which is her main priority, she would also make a “strong commitment” to customers, partners, shareholders and employees and all stakeholders.

“We will emerge stronger, with a very strong focus on our customers, an incisive eagerness to embrace challenges and execute change and innovation, a respect and involvement of all stakeholders, with a shared vision of a renewed and successful business, pride in Portugal and, of course, a willingness to take bold decisions,” she said.

In a statement published on Thursday evening via Portugal’s Securities Markets Commission (CMVM), TAP announced the election at a general meeting of shareholders of the members of corporate bodies for the four-year term 2021-2024.

Succeeding Miguel Frasquilho as chairman of the board of directors is Manuel Beja, who has a degree in Mathematics Applied to Economics and Management and with experience in the area of information technologies.

Ourmieres-Widener, Ramiro Sequeira, Alexandra Reis, João Gameiro, José Manuel Silva Rodrigues, Silvia Mosquera González, Patrício Ramos Castro, Ana Teresa Lehmann, Gonçalo Monteiro Pires and João Pedro da Conceição Duarte are also on the new board.

Ourmieres-Widener is also to lead the new TAP SGPS executive committee for the four-year period.

TAP has also appointed a state aid monitoring committee, chaired by Patrício Ramos Castro with Ourmières-Widener and João Gameiro as members.

In his own statement to employees, the new chairman of the board said that he would seek to “reconcile the aspirations of all stakeholders” and create conditions for the executive committee to lead TAP to a “sustainable future”.

Portugal’s Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing, meanwhile, stressed today in a statement that the management of TAP had entered a “new phase” following the “decisive step” of appointing new directors and executives.