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The Portuguese government wants more control over the stricken airline TAP in exchange for a rescue loan of as much as E1.2b, Expresso reported. The government, which already controls 50% of TAP, is in talks with private shareholders about the loan and should get a response early next week, the weekly newspaper said, without identifying its sources. The national flag carrier has immediate liquidity needs after halting most operations due to the coronavirus outbreak, which has hit airlines around the world. The government already controls half of the 12 seats on the board and appoints the airline’s chairman. But TAP’s private shareholders effectively run the airline’s day-to-day business as they appoint the remaining six members of the board, including the CEO and the two other members of the executive committee. The airline’s governance model would need to be changed for the board of directors to have more power in the daily management of the carrier as the government doesn’t plan to appoint a representative to TAP’s executive committee, Expresso said.<br/>

Austrian Airlines expects its business to end up a fifth smaller by 2022 and to have cut the number of its employees by around 1,100 from 7,000 currently, its head said. Austria has agreed a E450million bailout for the group that will protect Vienna as a transit hub and safeguard "the bulk" of the flag carrier's jobs, the government said Monday. "Our goal is 80% of the former size of the company in 2022, which from today's perspective would mean 1,100 employees too many," Alexis von Hoensbroech was quoted as saying by Der Standard when asked about job cuts. "We are planning two years of short-time work, there can be no layoffs for that long, and we assume that we will achieve a large part of the reduction by 2022 through fluctuation," he said. The paper cited Lufthansa's CE as saying the deal -- which stipulates that the Vienna hub must grow at the same rate as Munich, Frankfurt and Zurich -- is valid only until 2023.<br/>