The Minister of Ports and Airports of Brazil said this Friday that his government will wait to see the prospect of privatization of TAP and the offer for the international market, to evaluate with Brazilian companies their interest in competing.
“We have to wait to see what will be offered to the international market.”said Silvio Costa Filho in an interview with Lusa, after a meeting with the Portuguese Minister of Infrastructure, Miguel Pinto Luz, which took place this Thursday in Lisbon, and in which his counterpart officially informed him that “TAP would be privatized at throughout 2025.”
Brazil will follow the process, the minister stated, but stressed that Lula da Silva’s executive will institutionally respect “the decision of the Portuguese government.”and in the meeting with the Portuguese counterpart it was stated that “any airline in the world can participate” in this process.
Therefore, upon returning to Brazil, he will transmit this idea in dialogue with Latam, Azul, Gol and other companies”, although “the Brazilian government supports and hopes for the strengthening of Brazilian airlines, but any purchase of assets is the responsibility of the market and the airlines.”
On October 10, in public statements, the Portuguese Minister of State and Finance spoke of three groups interested in the privatization of the Portuguese airline.
“We are in dialogue with the three airlines [Lufthansa, Air France-KLM e IAG] who showed interest in the privatization of the company”This is a preliminary dialogue, we are analyzing the intentions of each of these companies,” said Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, at a press conference in Lisbon, after the delivery to parliament of the State Budget proposal for 2025 (OE2025). .
Brazil, the Brazilian minister told Lusa, wants to be able to have “an improvement in the services provided by TAP” after its sale to private companies and for the airline to “be able to preserve flights” to the country and “be able to expand.” the dialogue between Brazilian aviation and Portuguese aviation.”
From his Portuguese counterpart, he guarantees that, “regardless of the privatization of TAP”, all the routes and flights that the airline currently has to Brazil “will be preserved” and that “work will be done, as [a empresa] have new planes, to be able to expand new routes and flights” for the Brazilian market.
Silvio Costa Pinto, who considered the meeting with his counterpart “very positive,” added that they also discussed other possibilities to expand the bilateral relationship between Brazil and Portugal.
Remembering that the Currently, two countries have “a joint priority to increasingly strengthen business and leisure tourism,” He said that today, “in the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of Portugal, tourism is equivalent to 15% and in Brazil it is equivalent to 7%.”
In his opinion, this means that the two countries have “a lot of work ahead of them so that more and more Brazilian tourists come to Portugal and the Portuguese can go to Brazil” for leisure and business reasons.
A context in which both governments also know that “TAP is very important.”
Between October 21 and 25, the Brazilian Minister of Ports and Airports will visit Spain and Portugal, countries that the Brazilian Government considers “strategic partners (…) in the sector.”
The objective of this trip, which began in Portugal on Thursday and will end this Friday, was to meet with investors, company representatives and local authorities to present concession projects, investment proposals and opportunities in regional aviation and Brazilian ports, reported his ministry in a statement. .
Source: Observadora
