On her last day as president of the Board of Directors, Teresa Gonçalves states that “at SATA there are not enough planes and furthermore “there is no capacity to inject money into the company.”
The outgoing president of SATA, Teresa Gonçalves, considered it important this Tuesday that Azores Airlines be privatized so that the airline can grow and have the “ability to dilute the costs” derived from the activity.
“I think it is important to privatize the company, because SATA needs to grow. The only problem with SATA and those results. […] “It is that we do not have the capacity to dilute costs,” Teresa Gonçalves told the Lusa agency, on her last day as president of the board of directors of the Azores public aviation group.
According to the person in charge, who spoke on the sidelines of the presentation of the operating results for the first quarter of 2024, at SATA there are not enough aircraft and also “there is no capacity to inject money into the company.”
“Therefore, the SATAN needs to grow, There needs to be a private entity that injects money into the company and the costs can be diluted., and then continue the route we have been taking. Because SATA is strategically located in the middle of the Atlantic, it connects North America and Europe and therefore this work must now continue,” he defended.
At Azores Airlines/Sata Internacional, responsible for the archipelago’s connections with the outside world and currently in the process of privatization, The net result for the first quarter of this year amounted to negative 25.6 million euros. (compared to negative 22.7 million euros in the same period last year) and at SATA Air Açores, which makes connections between islands, it was also negative 4.7 million euros (representing an improvement of 2.3 million euros compared to the same period in 2023).
Teresa Gonçalves assumed the presidency of SATA in April 2023, following the departure of Luís Rodrigues to lead TAP.
On April 9, the Regional Government (PSD/CDS-PP/PPM) announced that Teresa Gonçalves had resigned from her position for “personal reasons.”
On April 11, the Azores Airlines Works Council revealed that it resigned because the Government of the Azores “did not offer the necessary conditions” for the management to continue developing the “proposed project.”
When Lusa asked her this Tuesday about the reasons for her departure from the Board of Directors, she and the financial administrator Dinis Modesto simply responded: “We have not abandoned [a SATA]. We carry out our work in the most professional way possible. When we feel that we can no longer act effectively according to our principles and our beliefs and the way we actually think we should act, that’s it, we have to walk away.”
“I am very satisfied because I think I did a very good job. Me, the Board of Directors, Dinis [Modesto]who will go out with me, and the workers,” he concluded.
The resigning board of directors sent the regional government its opinion on the ongoing privatization process of Azores Airlines, expressing “reservations about the NewTour MS Aviation consortium and the limitations of the competitor.”
SATA management opposes selling Azores Airlines to the only candidate
The competition jury, chaired by economist Augusto Mateus, maintained in the final report the decision to accept a single competitor, but admitted reservations about the capacity of the Newtour MS Aviation consortium to guarantee the viability of the company.
Last week, the regional secretary of Mobility, Berta Cabral, stated that “the Government Council will decide and it will be soon.”
According to Teresa Gonçalves, the outgoing administration, “effectively, analyzed the jury’s report, made its own analysis of the entities that formed the consortium, of the valuation of the company.”
“We presented to the Regional Government precisely these analyses, these facts, and we said: now the Regional Government, as a shareholder, will have to take a position. And that’s what we’re waiting for. […] What was transmitted was this, as simple as that: in the face of certain facts, please, the shareholder decides what he believes is best for the company,” he said.
He suggested that the company’s future direction pay close attention to people.
“It is essential not to forget about people, because normally we get into the day-to-day life and begin to focus only on the operation. But behind this entire operation there are people and it is essential that we do not forget the people. And then continue with the good work that has been done,” he advised.
Source: Observadora
