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Luís Marques Mendes warns that the TAP file will become even more “burning”, as the airline’s restructuring plan will go to a vote in Parliament, after being approved by the European Commission. “I think it is a correct decision, but it is risky. As the Government does not have a majority in Parliament if the plan is not successful, it is the end of TAP,” predicted the former Social Democratic leader, in his usual comment space in the SIC.
According to Marques Mendes, the Government has already informed the PSD, as the largest opposition party, of its intention regarding the TAP restructuring plan that must be presented until next Thursday in Brussels.
For the former leader of the PSD, the Executive’s decision goes in the right direction, since the plan will require money from the State by 2023, plus one billion euros already next year. “So it is better to define the rules from the beginning,” he said.
Admitting that TAP will have to become a “mostly private” airline, “smaller and more balanced”, after successive years of losses now aggravated by the pandemic, Marques Mendes defended that the State should only guarantee public service through connections to the Autonomous Regions of Madeira and Azores and the “Portuguese Diaspora”.
Regarding the warnings from the unions, Marques Mendes acknowledged that there are reasons given the social cost of the restructuring of TAP, but stressed that the Portuguese tolerance towards the company has already ended. “The plan is tough, I understand the unions. But the European Commission may consider that it has to be even tougher and may even demand the liquidation of TAP,” he reinforced.
For many years, Marques Mendes underlines, TAP was “a kind of sacred cow”, there was “a lot of tolerance, the State put money in TAP and nobody cared.” However, given that TAP in the last 11 years “only obtained profits once, in 2017”, having recorded losses even in 2018 and 2019 when a “boom tourism ”, ended the margin of tolerance towards the company.
It should be remembered that the Civil Aviation Pilots Union (SPAC) holds an extraordinary Assembly this Monday to discuss actions, after having asked the Government to negotiate with Brussels the postponement of the presentation of the TAP Restructuring Plan.
On Friday, the Liberal Initiative (IL) requested “urgent” parliamentary hearings of the unions, the Board of Directors and the TAP Executive Committee, in the scope of the airline’s Restructuring Plan, while the Left Bloc (BE) advanced the same day with another request for the plan to be presented to Parliament “at the right time” by the Minister of Infrastructure, so that it can be “scrutinized” by the deputies.
