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The president of the Northern Regional Council acknowledged today that TAP is going through a “complex” moment, but defended that the Porto airport “cannot be singled out as the ugly duckling of the airline.”
“The moment is delicate for the country, which is experiencing the economic crisis of a pandemic and is complex for TAP, which has to present a restructuring plan in Brussels before the end of the year, but in the middle the Porto airport cannot be designated as the ugly duckling of the national airline ”, Miguel Alves told Lusa.
For the socialist, who chairs the Northern Regional Council, an advisory body of the Northern Regional Development and Coordination Commission (CCDR-N), “it is in Porto and in the North that the country finds its most exporting companies, its industrial engine. , the ability to grow in tourism and the stronger connection with the diaspora ”.
“The political radar that will decide the future of TAP has to take into account the Francisco Sá Carneiro airport and all the potential of the North,” he said.
Miguel Alves, who is also the mayor of Caminha, in the Viana do Castelo district, admitted that “in recent months, the news of TAP’s relationship with the north of the country has been regrettable and the equivocal statements of the Minister of Infrastructure have it helped to clear the atmosphere of discomfort that he himself disputes ”.
“Taking into account the loss of routes as a current problem for TAP’s operation, focusing on the damage that the company will have with the routes that leave from Porto, it is not only unfair for the region but it is the opposite of the strategy that the Government has had. announced TAP, as the flag company of Portugal ”, he specified.
Miguel Alves admitted that “the northern routes are not profitable”, but questioned whether “it is only the routes in Porto that cause losses and, if in Porto there are no other routes, of other companies, that are profitable.”
“If it is not only the routes of Porto that are suffering losses, then do not put the anathema of the unprofitable TAP in the North, if there are other airlines that carry out profitable operations from Porto, then it is because TAP knows little of what is happening to do, ”he said.
The Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing stressed today that TAP “is currently losing money on practically all routes”, following criticism from the mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira.
At stake are the minister’s statements on Thursday, at a hearing at the Economy, Innovation, Public Works and Housing Commission, in parliament, that the four routes created at Porto airport, to Amsterdam, Milan, Zurich and Ponta Delgada, they have “46% of average capacity” and “are currently a loss for TAP”.
In a statement, the tutelage stressed today that Pedro Nuno Santos “never said that the only routes that would harm TAP were the four mentioned yesterday. [quinta-feira] in the parliamentary hearing in which he was present ”.
“It was also mentioned in that hearing that TAP is currently losing money on practically all routes, including those that run from the Humberto Delgado Airport in Lisbon. This is, as you can see, the scenario in practically the entire aviation sector ”, says the same note.
The statement reads that “there are currently 11 routes operated by TAP from Porto and that, although practically all companies are strongly reducing their operations in winter, TAP will maintain 10 routes in Porto”, which the official believes to demonstrate “the great commitment of the public airline with the region ”.
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