“Brussels will alter TAP revamp plan”

The president of euroAtlantic airways, a small schedule and non-Schedule Portuguese International Airline, believes that the EU Commission will not accept TAP’s restructuring plan in its present form.

In an interview with Jornal de Negócios and Antena 1, Eugénio Fernandes said he believed the plan would be changed because “Brussels will be “much stricter” than the Government is expecting.
“I hope a plan for TAP will be approved, it’s just that I don’t believe that Brussels will approve this particular plan with the (current) government.
“You only have to look at the world to see what has happened in other European countries. I don’t believe that the decision they’ll get from Brussels will be what they’re expecting, I think it will be stricter in terms of reducing staff numbers, handing over slots (to non-TAP airlines) and in terms of capacity,” he said.
The euroAtlantic president also thinks the political crisis in Portugal will have negative impacts on companies.
“Our companies, and certainly this is true in our sector, work a lot overseas and overseas is looking a us with less confidence. In the aviation case, with aircraft leasing, we work a lot with the international financial market. With this political crisis the market views us with some lack of confidence and will penalise us,” he added regretfully.