The SPAC has criticized SATA Holding for obstructing access to essential information for the future of Azores Airlines, using confidentiality clauses that effectively make the privatization process opaque and hostile to worker participation.
“Rather than using this phase to establish real negotiation conditions, SATA Holding continues to obstruct, through its management and intermediate structures favoring control of narratives over solutions, contact between the potential buyer and the workers,” it mentioned.
The union sees the extension of the deadline for the consortium Newtour/MS Aviation to submit a binding proposal until November 10 as a ‘window of opportunity for dialogue and transparency,’ but warns it should not mask maintaining the ‘status quo.’
SPAC Vice President Frederico Saraiva de Almeida described it as “unacceptable that a public company cites ‘confidentiality’ to deny representatives of the workers — who are equally obliged to confidentiality — access to the strategic project of those proposing to secure the airline’s future.”
The union leader emphasized that this “attitude not only undermines the process’s credibility but also fosters a climate of distrust detrimental to the company, its employees, and the Autonomous Region of the Azores.”
SPAC urges the Regional Government of the Azores, in its capacity as shareholder of SATA Holding, to “take a firm and active role” in overseeing the process, asserting that the privatization of Azores Airlines “should serve the public interest of the region” and be conducted with “total transparency.”
“The regional executive must demand that SATA’s management end the culture of obstruction and transform transparency into an obligation, not a threat,” it concluded.
The union reiterated that the pilots “believe privatization is inevitable” and are willing to “contribute responsibly and constructively” to the process if “clear access to data and information facilitating genuine dialogue” is granted.
The Government of the Azores announced that the deadline for the consortium Newtour MS/Aviation to present a “firm proposal” for the privatization of Azores Airlines has been postponed to November 10.
The competition jury, chaired by economist Augusto Mateus, had initially required the consortium to submit their proposal by October 24, a deadline now extended to November 10.
According to the tender specifications, the consortium will need to present an “improved proposal” by November 10, and the jury has set November 24 as the deadline for submitting bureaucratic documentation.
The privatization of Azores Airlines (a SATA Group company operating from the archipelago to external destinations) is under negotiation with the consortium Newtour/MS Aviation.
In June 2022, the European Commission approved Portuguese state aid for the airline’s restructuring, amounting to 453.25 million euros in loans and state guarantees, including measures such as a structural reorganization and the divestment of a controlling stake (51%).
