Portugal To Privatize National Airline TAP, Sell 44.9% Stake: Two Airlines In Running

Selfishly as an American I hate this. For the last several years TAP has been very underrated based on cost and experience. Basically checks all the long-haul business class expectations/experience for half the price of most of its competitors. Food is better then a lot of its competition too. Transiting in Lisbon is usually quite easy too.

LIS has had some immigration/customs issues with construction, but otherwise agreed; really impressed by TAP’s a321 lie-flat J product for EWR-OPO, for instance.

IAG/ basically BA & IBERIA and partners have the right idea.............Total Control or they walk away. TAP will end up being another case of ALITALIA with Government Interference throwing up roadblocks along the way. The Portugal to Brazil Market may be lucrative but iAG will be better off with SPAIN to South America for better coverage. The Lisbon Airport is a Clusterf* on a good day so that is also an issue.

I still don't understand though. If TAP is doing fine now as a nationalized airline, why must it become private? Can it not just continue on as is, performing decently?

the Portuguese government clearly wants to protect what TP has done for the country and the chances are quite high that AF/KL can make a better case for doing that than the LH Group which continues to struggle to make its core operations work.

Portugal is geographically well suited to feed southern Europe flights from the Americas and could benefit much more than Italy and ITA

I don't expect LH Group will go down w/o a fight but they are at a disadvantage because of the chaos in their own company

I don't think anyone's too worried about TAP's North American operations - they're neither high volume nor high yielding. Similarly, their African network is tiny compared to those of AFKL and LH/SN. This is all about Brazil.

Totally. I was just looking for fun. I can fly roundtrip on TAP from Boston next week to basically anywhere in Europe for more than half the cost as our big 3 here. Besides fancier lounges, nothing is really different in the experience besides significantly better food on tap lol.

Unlike others I see LH in pole. Portugal wants TAP to stay relevant, LH has proven they can do that. Talk to the Netherlands if they feel Air France has treated KLM right. Talk to Austria and Sui about LH. Also, Lis can hope for a lot of feeder traffic to southamerica from LH, will France route their Pax there? Infact, with AF, TAP will lose German and Austrian pax from their LH codeshares. The LH home markets are by far bigger then Fra/NL. And then there are the alliances. Latam is sky. I don’t see how Portugal and Lis will gain between IB und Latam and a star alliance which will then operate their own South America routes.

The Achilles Heels in TAP is actually Lisbon Airport. Old and not efficient at all.
Iberia is starting to get its grip in Brazil besides being omnipresent in Spanish Latin America.

and LIS does not need to be a major TATL hub other than to/from Brazil where cultural ties between Brazil and Portugal give Brazil a lead.

TP plus either AF/KL or LH Group supplements what they cannot fully build out at AMS/CDG or FRA/MUC/ZRH to Brazil.

and it is precisely because LIS is "full" that it will make flights there profitable. The chances of increasing capacity at major European airlines is as much as new runways being built at major coastal US hubs - ZERO.

Portugal just has to decide which alliance will give it better returns since they are selling a large minority stake.

LTD says, "it is precisely because LIS is "full" that it will make flights there profitable."

And that applies to other airports, right? Too funny.

@Tim, I don't understand the point of your comment. Brazil isn't quite Guatemala, it's the seventh most populous country in the entire world with a growing economy and a tourism industry with enormous potential (just 9 million foreign visitors last year- Greece's population is 95% smaller but it receives 400% more tourists). How exactly are they going to capitalise on that potential without room for additional flights?

I do think AF/KLM is probably the better option for TAP although being Star Alliance is a hurdle.

Also with approval Brussels has a strong African market and I wonder if that'd mean TAP or Brussels would have to give up routes to get regulatory approval whereas AF/KLM doesn't really have a strong African Network.

I think TAP would also be a good fit for SkyTeam and slot right into their network as it feels very much like SAS was within Star Alliance. There but not really considered an equal partner

TP is trying to be a full-service network carrier competing w/ alliances which have much larger hubs.

If TP focuses on what it does best, including Brazil and Africa, then the alliance and the Portuguese government makes more money by allowing TATL connecting traffic to flow through other hubs.

and, yes, rebel, full airports generally drive up yields. Not sure why you think I would suggest any differently.

TAP fits in better with the star alliance network

So you're saying that TAP should focus on connecting Brazil with Europe and do that without flying across the Atlantic? WTAF?

I think EU State Aid rules require TAP to be privatized within a certain time period. The EU has rules around Governments subsidizing private businesses, which is what they did when TAP was initially bailed out. Others please correct me if I have this wrong.

you do realize that the Atlantic DOES separate Europe from Brazil?

and you also realize that hubs, even within alliances, have areas in which they are each stronger?

No one says that TP shouldn't fly to NORTH AMERICA but that the focus should be on doing what TP does best which is focus on Brazil and Africa, the latter of which involves connecting N. America.
TP does not need to focus on connecting a bunch of cities BEYOND LIS to N. America although some make sense.

I never wrote anything about North America- but you mentioned that 'TATL' traffic is somehow unhelpful for TAP at the same time as saying that they should intensify their focus on Brazil!! You've got to decide whether you believe that flights between Europe and South America are actually transatlantic!!

If you can’t even get you alliances right, you’re obviously not qualified to speak

Let’s see if LH can even get anyone to come to work to put this proposal together first

I think this is a good point. Factually LA is not Skyteam (they’re not in any alliance since leaving Oneworld) but they are certainly moving towards Skyteam with their DL JV, partnership with VS, and dropping some Oneworld partnerships (eg. AS). LA doesn’t currently have any major star alliance partners. If AF/KLM acquired TP and formed a Europe-South America JV with LA (potentially adding in VS as well) they would dominate all Europe-South America travel. I would expect this would have DL’s blessing as well given their ownership stakes.

LA partner with airlines from across alliances and I suspect AR would veto any attempts to join Skyteam (in fact I can also envisage Aeroméxico being less than enthusiastic about such a development)

Doesn't the Lufthansa Group count as a major *A partner?

While unavoidable, I’d hate for TAP to be sold to any of the 3 airline groups. I find very attractive J tickets for EU to US with the added bonus of an overnight stopover in Lisbon when I want.

Everything Lufthansa touches turns to $hit.

Pedro, you are wrong. EU state aid rules do not require TAP to be privatised.
A company restructuring was imposed. Privatising it is a political choice. It happened twice in the past (TAP vs Swissair and TAP vs Neelman). Let's hope this time the job is properly done.

TAP would probably had to give up more slots in Lisbon should it be sold to LH group. Labour relations is something extremely important for TAP and the record of LH in that matter is appalling. TAP has not benefited that much over the years from star alliance. Furthermore, LH shut down a company overnight. I can't possibly imagine LH is even serious about buying TAP when in the middle of a process they shut down a company overnight. What for me is unclear is how TAP would keep up its North American focus as well when they enter AF/KL or LH. TAP has over the years increased dramatically its routes in the USA. TAP saw an increase of nearly 10% in passengers from north america in 2024 and that was before LAX. They will further expand in the USA - launching Orlando and in Brazil this year - with São Luis and Curitiba.

That was an excuse. Total control was never an option. They knew well that PT would never sell to IAG. And they pulled out, rightly so. For PT the only benefit of having IAG continuing in the process would be to increase competition. But politically it would be unthinkable to sell TP to IAG, minority stake or total control.