TAP boss Fernando Pinto warned workers today that the special conditions which have been in force regarding early retirement will end on the day the airline finally is sold.
In a message sent to TAP employees, the company's president said the airline is approaching the final stage of being sold and that there are just a few legal procedures to complete, which he assured soon will be done.
Pinto did mention that TAP currently is working under the "company in difficulties" regime which has enabled the early retirement deals to be offered but that these will end on the day that the deal to sell TAP to Gateway has gone through.
"Given this reality, workers of TAP that are interested in retiring early may register their interest with their managers so as to open the process immediately allowing an evaluation to be made right away," was the gist of the message.
The rest of Pinto's 'Friday afternoon special' was devoted to saying how well the airline was doing with punctuality rates the best for many years which was a great sign that the airline was serving its customers well.
He did not mention the financial drain that TAP is causing on the national accounts.
TAP lost €143 million in the first half of 2015, €60 million more than the dire result from the same period the year before. The increased loss can be put down to the lack of bookings and the refunds resulting from the May pilots' strike.
The state owned airline's results severely dented the half-yearly results of Parpública, the company that owns state assets on behalf of the Portuguese public.
Pinto is banking on the competition authority passing the deal that will see Humberto Pedroso and David Neeleman, owners of Gateway, buying the strike prone airline.
Comments
Can we therefore presume that Gateway have,(like the Chinese and / or Americans buying Novo Banco in wanting an offset for re-capitalisation costs), written into the TAP purchase contract that the Portuguese Government will make good any shortfall in profits 'above' a certain amount.
Think of the PPI's that paid for the motorways and their toll systems. How the wide boys lending the Portuguese Government money at the time now get paid whether anyone is on the motorway or not.
The point being that at the moment TAP has patriotic loyalty buying its seats. That will evaporate. Some, having now tried budget airlines during strikes, will not want to pay any premium so will be lost. Forever. And no doubt anyone taking these pensions will be aware that it is the Portuguese Government paying for them today. And Gateway tomorrow. But both in a year or two, citing lack of funds, so possibly whittling them down ?
No doubt somewhere in all this is why the EU Competition Authority stayed out of an investigation. Why waste money doing so when it is all likely to fall apart nicely before too long and allow the remaining flag carriers budget airlines more landing rights on these routes?