Government dismisses TAP chairman, CEO

  • Lusa
  • 7 March 2023

Fernando Medina, who was speaking at a joint press conference with infrastructure minister João Galamba, also said that "there will be no payment of compensation" to the outgoing managers".

The Portuguese government has dismissed the chairman of the board of directors and chief executive of TAP, Manuel Beja and Christine Ourmières-Widener, following the IGF report on the departure of Alexandra Reis from the company, the finance minister announced.

Fernando Medina, who was speaking on Monday in Lisbon at a joint press conference with infrastructure minister João Galamba, also said that “there will be no payment of compensation” to the outgoing managers.

João Galamba also said that the entire TAP Executive Committee currently in office would not leave.

“By facing the problems head on as we do and in a comprehensive manner, I have full confidence that TAP will successfully pursue the path to its future sustainability which will include the privatisation of part of its capital,” he said.

Last December, Alexandra Reis took office as secretary of state for the treasury, at which time controversy erupted over the compensation she received when she left the state-owned airline ( €500,000).

In a written statement sent to Lusa that month, Reis said that the agreement to cease her duties “as director of the companies in the TAP universe” and the revocation of her “employment contract with TAP S.A., both requested by TAP, as well as its public communication, was agreed between the legal teams of both parties, mandated to ensure the adoption of best practices and strict compliance with all legal precepts.