The Portuguese Social Democratic Party (PSD) believes that the commencement of the privatization process for TAP, announced today by the Prime Minister, allows the recovery of the significant financial efforts previously made by the Portuguese people, while safeguarding the future of the national airline.
This stance was communicated to journalists by Alexandre Poço, the vice-president of the social-democratic parliamentary group, shortly after the government’s decision to begin the process of reprivatizing TAP, starting with the sale of 49.9% of the airline’s capital.
“We believe this is an important decision because, first and foremost, it seeks to recover the significant financial effort that the Portuguese have made with TAP in recent years,” stated Alexandre Poço.
The PSD vice-president also emphasized that the government’s decision “safeguards TAP’s role as a strategic company for the national economy.”
“Furthermore, it safeguards the Lisbon hub and other national and regional airports, while also aiming to protect the most strategic routes for the Portuguese people,” added the PSD leader, before discussing the issue of the company’s employees.
“The government’s decision guarantees the role of employees in the company now and in the future, ensuring that this capital opening will allocate about 5% for employees in this first phase of TAP’s capital privatization,” he noted.
Alexandre Poço also delivered a political message, referencing two of the most relevant processes for the national transport and infrastructure sector.
“The two most important issues in the airport sector that we encountered when we started governing were the new airport and the resolution of TAP’s share capital. Now, a year later, we have resolved the new airport – the future Luís de Camões airport is underway today – and this Council of Ministers’ decision now resolves the issue of TAP’s share capital,” he argued.
In this privatization process, the government intends to sell up to 49.9% of the airline’s capital through a direct sale model, reserving up to 5% for employees, as stipulated by privatization laws.
This is the first step towards initiating the sale of TAP, which will once again have private shareholders after the government nationalized it in 2020 due to the pandemic’s impact on air transport.
The decree-law will also need approval from the President of the Republic, who in October 2023, vetoed the document prepared by António Costa’s government to start TAP’s privatization.
At the time, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa decided to return the diploma, approved by the Council of Ministers on September 28 of that year, considering that it “raised multiple doubts and hesitations in terms of the desired maximum transparency of the process.”
The reprivatization of the airline has been under discussion since 2023 but was interrupted by the fall of the last two PS and PSD governments.
