TAP selloff will provide “huge opportunities to grow” says CEO

The CEO of TAP, Luís Rodrigues, says the times of the airline standing “proudly alone” are over and “soon we’ll be integrated into an aviation giant”.

Luís Rodrigues made his comments at the World Aviation Festival, an airline fair that has been running this week (October 7-9) at Lisbon’s trade fairs venue FIL.

He said that it was “inevitable” that TAP would become part of a larger aviation group, a process that should be completed within a year.

“In a year’s time we will be integrated into a gigantic aviation group”, he said referring to the privatisation of 49.9% of the company.

When asked about a loss of independence, Luís Rodrigues said that was a “natural process”. “The times of standing proudly alone are over. There was s time when this was possible, but not now”.

The CEO was also asked about the challenge of managing human resources in a context of the airline being sold.

“What we say to our staff is that they should continue working (as usual) since we don’t know if the privatisation will go ahead or not, but I hope so.”

“The worst that can happen is that whoever buys the airline will say these people are not required and should be made redundant. But if they see that they are doing a good job then they’ll want them to remain,” he said.

The CEO said that Brazil, Africa, and the maintenance and engineering business were among the main growth opportunities for TAP from any forthcoming merger.

“Brazil has always been a promising country and still is. There are huge opportunities”, he said, adding that tourism still had a share of only 6%, with a lot of margin to grow.

Source: ECO

Image: Quiosque da Aviation