Portugal's TAP says passenger traffic up 30% in first half of 2023
Portugal’s state-owned airline TAP carried 7.58m passengers in the first half of this year, a 30% increase from a year ago but still slightly below pre-pandemic levels even as tourist numbers have already exceeded those seen in 2019. Still, the state-owned carrier, which the government plans to partially privatise, said on Monday that intercontinental routes to Brazil, North America and Africa carried 2.17m passengers in the period, 14.7% more than in the first half of 2019. That, it said, “demonstrated the solid recovery of the company”, although the total passenger traffic fell 4% shy of the same period in 2019 as the airline’s flights within Europe, including mainland Portugal and islands - carried fewer passengers. TAP is undergoing a restructuring under a Brussels-approved E3.2b rescue plan, but the government wants to launch its privatisation as early as this month while intending to keep a strategic stake. At least three major global carriers - IAG, Lufthansa, and Air France-KLM - have so far shown interest in TAP. The Portuguese airline reported a net loss of E57.4m in the first quarter of this year, which represented more than a 50% drop from the loss in the previous year’s period, due to increasing passenger numbers. <br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2023-07-11/star/portugals-tap-says-passenger-traffic-up-30-in-first-half-of-2023
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Portugal's TAP says passenger traffic up 30% in first half of 2023
Portugal’s state-owned airline TAP carried 7.58m passengers in the first half of this year, a 30% increase from a year ago but still slightly below pre-pandemic levels even as tourist numbers have already exceeded those seen in 2019. Still, the state-owned carrier, which the government plans to partially privatise, said on Monday that intercontinental routes to Brazil, North America and Africa carried 2.17m passengers in the period, 14.7% more than in the first half of 2019. That, it said, “demonstrated the solid recovery of the company”, although the total passenger traffic fell 4% shy of the same period in 2019 as the airline’s flights within Europe, including mainland Portugal and islands - carried fewer passengers. TAP is undergoing a restructuring under a Brussels-approved E3.2b rescue plan, but the government wants to launch its privatisation as early as this month while intending to keep a strategic stake. At least three major global carriers - IAG, Lufthansa, and Air France-KLM - have so far shown interest in TAP. The Portuguese airline reported a net loss of E57.4m in the first quarter of this year, which represented more than a 50% drop from the loss in the previous year’s period, due to increasing passenger numbers. <br/>
