The Minister of Economy indicates, in an interview with a Spanish newspaper, that Iberia, like other operators, can participate in the privatization of TAP and values the connectivity with the Madrid airport.
The Minister of Economy, António Costa Silva, indicates that Iberia can participate in the privatization of TAP and argues that greater connectivity with the Madrid airport would boost the national economy and tourism.
The statements were made to the Spanish newspaper El Economista, within the framework of an interview held at the board of trustees of Fitur (international tourism fair) in the Spanish capital. The IAG group of British Airways, which controls the Spanish Iberia, has indicated its interest in the Portuguese airline whose privatization is taking its first steps. The president of Air France KLM has already admitted that TAP could be an operation of the group that recently withdrew from the purchase of a stake in the Italian airline that succeeded Alitalia, ITA.
“TAP is now a clean company and the right conditions for privatization have been created. Iberia and other interested international operators can participate in it”, pointed out the Minister of Economy. “Connectivity with the Barajas airport hub would boost both tourism and the country’s economy, and both TAP and Iberia play an important role in this matter.”
Costa Silva does not have the supervision of TAP (which is in Infrastructures with João Galamba), but has the tourism portfolio in its ministry. And in these statements he points out that “we have to occupy air connectivity because there are studies that reveal that its insufficiency conditions our economy compared to the rest of Europe because we are a peripheral country.”
The former Minister of Infrastructure, Pedro Nuno Santos, pointed out that an alliance with Lufthansa would be welcomed by the Government, but in a context in which the German company will have been analyzing the purchase of David Neeleman’s stake in TAP, even before the pandemic. and the takeover by the state. More recently, Pedro Nuno Santos defended the integration of TAP into a global aviation group. Despite the preference it seems to have in Portugal, also due to past negotiations, the German company has never publicly admitted its interest in TAP and this week presented a proposal for the purchase of 40% of ITA.
A possible purchase of TAP by AIG has raised some reservations in Portugal, mainly because it owns Iberia, whose hub in Madrid is a competitor of TAP’s hub in Lisbon. In the event that a Spanish company, or its shareholder, comes to control TAP, there is fear in Portugal that the strategy and connections will begin to strengthen Madrid, to the detriment of Lisbon. Even more so when Barajas has had capacity expansions, when the future Lisbon airport remains undecided.
Pedro Nuno Santos: “Without TAP, Madrid would become the only Iberian hub”
The maintenance and development of the TAP hub in Lisbon was one of the main arguments for the public injection into the Portuguese airline. The concern that the end of TAP and its hub would force the Portuguese to go to Madrid to take intercontinental flights (due to the absence of the interconnection effect) was expressed on several occasions by former minister Pedro Nuno Santos.
Source: Observadora
