Summary
- TAP Air Portugal is reconsidering Airbus A350s for long-haul expansion at Lisbon’s overcrowded airport.
- The airport operator of Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado airport is losing over EUR 200 million as a consequence of capability constraints.
- Mismanagement and financial struggles have led to strategic shifts at TAP Air Portugal to enhance operational performance.
Reports indicate that TAP Air Portugal is (re)considering an order for Airbus A350 aircraft, an idea that just about became a reality after the airline signed for the kind in 2005. It later canceled the order, favoring Airbus A330neos, A321neos, and Airbus A320neos.
In keeping with the most-read newspaper in Portugal, Expresso, TAP Air Portugal is again trying to the Airbus A350 to raised suit its planned long-haul expansion and mitigate the impacts of overcrowding on the airline’s hub in Lisbon. The news comes as TAP prepares to announce its financial results for 2023, continuing its recovery and – per local media – escaping the impacts of supposedly poor airline leadership over the previous few years.
The A350 order wouldn’t be immediate but is as an alternative a long-term ambition post-privatization.
Humberto Delgado: a perpetual challenge
Portugal’s biggest airport, Lisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (previously Lisbon Portela Airport), is consistently poorly ranked regarding on-time performance, passenger experience, and overall airport quality. Because the predominant gateway to the country’s capital, it leaves lots to be desired, with long queues and low ceilings, to call just a few common criticisms. No matter its quality, it’s packed to the brim: airlines struggle to expand operations to the Portuguese capital year-on-year.
In December 2022, the airport operators’ Director, Thierry Ligonnière, said in an interview with Dinheiro Vivo that it was losing out on greater than €20 million as a consequence of capability constraints. He said:
Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock
The switch on the time made sense, in response to former TAP chairman Miguel Frasquilho in a parliamentary inquiry last yr. Per Journal de Negocios, he said:
Years of mismanagement?
Mismanagement, Expresso states, has been a critical reason for the airline’s financial struggles.
One among the shifts in strategy last yr has been improving operational performance. Former CEO Christine Ourmières-Widener adopted an ACMI-based strategy, hiring planes from other firms and using their crews to grow capability. The report states that moving away from ACMI operations has been essential to cost-cutting measures. Ourmières-Widener was fired from the airline after an uncovered financial scandal through which a severance payment of €500,000 to a former board member, Alexandra Reis, was made. The ACMI strategy was then by her successor, Luís Rodrigues.
![TAP Airbus A330-900 landing at Lisbon Airport](https://static1.simpleflyingimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/shutterstock_2051342570-1.jpg)
TAP Air Portugal’s Former CEO Wants $6.3 Million Compensation For Live TV Firing
Christine Ourmières-Widener was dismissed during a press conference in March amid a severance package scandal.
Indeed, in its 2022 results conference, the airline noted that one among its objectives for 2023 could be to “re-negotiate third-party contracts, ” including ACMI agreements. By the summer season of 2023, only seven ACMI aircraft remained.
Additional improvements have been observed over the primary few months of 2024. In keeping with data seen by Expresso, the airline has been named probably the most punctual company at Lisbon Airport. In total, roughly 64% of the airline’s flights were on time, while runner-up Vueling Airlines reached 62%, tied with British Airways.
TAP Air Portugal has an overall market share of fifty% at Lisbon Airport.
The brand new Lisbon airport
With the news that TAP Air Portugal is on the lookout for latest aircraft to make sure its growth over the following few years, the importance of a brand-new airport serving Lisbon can’t be understated.
In an interview with Expresso last week, TAP President Luís Rodrigues said the next:
The talk on the situation of Lisbon’s latest airport has been an essentially political subject for years now. Several sites are on the table, but each has its issues. There was some movement in recent months, with a study having been conducted on the environmental impact of every of the proposed sites. One option involving converting the Montijo Air Force Base into the brand new airport was deemed unviable as a consequence of ecological concerns. Vendas Novas and Alcochete are the 2 sites which have now emerged as remaining possible locations for the brand new Lisbon airport.
Photo: John Gress Media Inc | Shutterstock
The alternative of the Airbus A350s, for now, stays a long-term goal, depending on privatization. Given the airline’s precarious situation despite positive financial improvements, it’s unlikely that such an order could be undertaken at this moment in time.
In other news, TAP Air Portugal released its 2023 financial results on Wednesday, highlighting a drastic improvement. It recorded its with €177 million, a rise of roughly €111 million in comparison with 2022. Rodrigues said:
“2023 strong results confirm TAP’s recovery path lately. Record revenues, surpassing the EUR 4bn mark, robust and resilient operating margins, and a transparent deleveraging trend, confirm the financial strength of the Group. A rise in punctuality and regularity within the second half of the yr, in addition to within the NPS, underscores the organizational concentrate on delivering a greater service to our passengers. Signing the brand new collective labour agreements confirms the popularity and commitment towards our people. 2024 will probably be a difficult yr that can test the organizational focus, for which we’ll need the commitment of all our teams to ascertain TAP as some of the attractive firms within the sector.”
Would you wish to see the A350 in TAP’s fleet? Tell us within the comments below.