TAP posts €108 million in losses for 1Q

Portugal’s soon-to-be-privatised airline TAP posted a loss of €108.2 million, up €18.1 million on the same period in 2024.

The results were disappointing because of a fall in air passenger revenues that the company blamed on Easter being in April instead of March and the Portugália – part of the TAP group – airline pilots strike.

“Q1 in 2025 was challenging, marked by the Portugália pilots strike and the fact that Easter moved to April. In addition to this, there was increased competition in the main markets and operational disruptions such as adverse weather events, strikes, and constraints at airports and in European air space. These significantly impacted the financial and operational performance during the quarter”, said TAP president, Luís Rodrigues in a communiqué.

TAP operational revenues stood at €823.4 million between January and March (-4.5% like-for-like).

Other factors included constraints in upping the number of aircraft to increase capacity because of TAP’s restructuring plan, and an increase in competition in its main markets such as Brazil which put pressure on the price of flights.

But despite fears over falling ticket sales to and from the US because of the economic context, the airline said that the US market showed a positive performance in 1Q, “sustained by an increase in unit revenues and load factor”.

TAP transported 3.51 million passengers, a number that remained practically unchanged on 1Q, 2024 with a load factor (pax numbers) of 78.8%.