State to inject €600 million more into TAP this year

AIRLINE || The Portuguese government will inject a further €600 million into TAP airline this year, making it the last year of extraordinary support for the company, according to the Stability Programme (SP) published on Monday.

In the document sent by the finance ministry to parliament on Friday and made available on Monday, the government has included as total expenditure for TAP, which is implementing a restructuring plan approved by Brussels, €600 million for this year, as compared to the €641 million it injected in 2021.

As for 2023, the SP mentions “savings” of “€600 million with TAP”, meaning that, for next year, the government anticipates not needing to inject capital into TAP.

With regard to public accounts, the SP estimates that “between 2021 and 2023, they will benefit from the end of extraordinary emergency measures relating to the pandemic and TAP, which will have a net impact on the budget balance of around 2.3% of GDP [Gross Domestic Product]”.

The European Commission said on December 21 that it had approved TAP’s restructuring plan and state aid of €2.55 billion, requiring the airline to release up to 18 slots per day at Lisbon airport.

On December 30, the government announced it had injected €536 million into TAP, via a capital increase, accepting that throughout 2022 new capital injections could be “made” into the company, according to a statement from the finance ministry.

In addition, the €1.2 billion loan to TAP granted in 2020 relating to the 2020 emergency expenditure was “converted into capital”, the government said.