European borders control “a challenge for us” says TAP boss

The CEO of Portuguese airline TAP says the European Entry/Exit System poses one of the greatest challenges to the company’s operation at Portugal’s airports and could lead to failures to keep takeoff times over the next few months.

Despite an improvement in first-quarter results, which is usually one of the weakest periods for airlines, especially the Portuguese one, Luís Rodrigues expressed dissatisfaction with the challenges TAP will face in the coming months, although the severity of the situation remains unknown.

“This performance (a loss of €39.9 million and revenues of €914.4 million) reflects a clear focus on strategy execution, with the South American and North American markets continuing to play a significant role in the growth of operations and revenues, resulting in a significant improvement in operating results,” Luís Rodrigues highlighted on the company’s results, adding that the improvement in financial indicators was achieved “despite a very challenging external context, marked by ongoing constraints in supply chains and operational challenges in implementing the Entry/Exit system at European airports.”

This has been one of the issues that has generated the most concern within the government and the tourism sector, with the latter indicating that the queues, lasting several hours both to enter and leave airports, will impact Portugal’s image abroad.

The Minister of Infrastructure, Miguel Pinto Luz, offered “formal apologies on behalf of the government” for the queues that have been experienced, with other members of the government admitting that these problems are not exclusive to Portugal, and that the delays will be resolved “in the very short term”.

Source: Negócios/Image: TAP