The Social Democrats want Parliament to hire a civil aviation specialist to analyze this A330 rental contract and try to understand any attempts at “favoritism.”
The parliamentary commission of inquiry into SATA wants the Azorean airline to make public documents classified as “confidential”, in particular the lease contract for the Airbus A330, known as the “sperm whale”, which generated million-dollar losses.
I request that the request be put to a vote so that this contract is made public and reaches this commission,” suggested the PSD deputy, Sabrina Furtado, who does not agree with the classification given to that document by the regional airline, which kept secret. .
The Social Democrats also want Parliament to hire a civil aviation specialist to analyze this A330 rental contract, to try to understand if there was any attempt to “favor”, by the regional public company, any air operator. .
The Assembly Board had already carried out a market consultation and presented as a proposal the hearing of two experts (Tomás Metelo and Eugénio Fernandes) by the Commission of Inquiry, but the socialist deputy Carlos Silva warned that one of them is linked to one of the companies that competed for the partial privatization of Azores Air Lines.
“I don’t know if it is good that at this point we are consulting people who have or had links with a company that is competing for the privatization of SATA, due to a possible conflict of interest,” he warned.
Also António Lima, parliamentary leader of the Bloco de Esquerda, understands that the Assembly must hire “exempt people, who have no interest in the industry and much less in the purchase of SATA Internacional”, adding that, otherwise, it would be a “abusive and completely incomprehensible“.
Nuno Barata, a Liberal Initiative deputy, weighs in against it, saying that he understands that “there is no conflict of interest” in this case, since the specialist in question will be hired to analyze a contract that has already ended and that “has nothing.” to do with the privatization of Azores Air Lines.”
Paulo Estêvão, PPM deputy, also questions the understanding of left-wing parties, whom he accuses of seeing companies as entities with “hidden interests”, as “sinful or corrupt”.
The controversy was overcome with the approval of a request, presented by the CDS-PP deputy, Rui Martins, for Parliament to consult the two experts in question, as well as a third entity, the Instituto Superior Técnico.
However, for these experts to be able to analyze the A330 lease contract, the document must no longer be confidential and can be made public.
The PSD deputies presented a proposal in this regard and also requested from SATA several documents related to the rental of aircraft, extraordinary flights, compensation paid to the company’s administrators, debts with suppliers and the sale process of Azores Air Lines.
The lease contract and maintenance reserves for the “sperm whale” cost SATA more than 24.5 million euros (between 2016 and 2020), to which more than 16 million euros were added in anticipation of the end of the contract rental, despite the fact that the device was stopped for two years, due to high maintenance costs.
Source: Observadora
