TAP a “total embarrassment” say city mayors

The mayors of Porto and Lisbon have slammed Portugal’s state-owned airline as a “total embarrassment and disaster” in the fiercest criticism lain at the door of the airline’s administration ever.

But the anger comes at a time when its French CEO, Christine Ourmières-Widener, has successfully overhauled the bankrupt airline from top to bottom with it producing a record turnover of €1Bn — a first in its entire history. The airline executive has delivered exactly what she was hired to do: make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear — and she had done that in record time.
In a clear ‘ganging up’ against the national carrier, Mayor of Lisbon Carlos Moedas and Mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira said at a conference ‘Local Power, RRP and Decentralisation’ in Vila Nova de Gaia in the district of Porto that TAP did “not serve the country” and that the “commitment” demanded from the Portuguese (meaning billions of euros of tax) was “appallingly shocking”.
“TAP is a remnant of a colonial company and nothing more than that. It’s of no use to us here in the North”, said Rui Moreira.
In his opinion the airline is “a disaster and continues to be a disaster” and asked why the Portuguese Republic had “invested €3.2Bn in the company. (The airline is currently up for sale at an expected asking price of just under €1Bn.)
Moreira added: “Does anyone believe that someone is going to pay €3.2Bn?” (for the airline).
Carlos Moedas said that TAP was a “total embarrassment” and a “sad episode” for the country.
“TAP is a total embarrassment, it shows not only a government that is totally left leaning, but a government that is totally without direction”, he said.
“The commitment that is being made by all Portuguese is truly shocking” he said in a clear nod to the financial sacrifices being heaped upon the shoulders of tax payers.
Moedas also stressed the need to move forward with a new airport for Lisbon in order to attract more and better quality tourism.