TAP lost €143 million in the first half of 2015, €60 million more than the appalling 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.
The usual excuse trotted out by TAP's management has been “losses from the Brazilian service company” but this time it is clear that the strikes at TAP have bitten a chunk out of operating revenues and hit the bottom line hard.
The strikes from May 1st to 10th caused "inherent disturbances in providing air transport services" and actively contributed to this deterioration, reads the half yearly Parpública report.
The June sale offer for TAP by Gateway was referred to Brussels which sat on the paperwork, only last week returning the file saying that it is up to Portugal’s Competition Authority to decide whether the deal can go through or not.
This was another way for Brussels to say ‘yes’ to the deal offered by Neeleman and Pedroso of Gatweway while at the same time distancing itself from any fall out by letting Portugal rubber stamp the sale.
According to the Parpública report released on Monday to the Portuguese Securities Market Commission, the largest negative contribution to Parpública’s net income was "the need to strengthen provisions by €113.8 million, primarily to keep pace with changes at the TAP Group."
Parpública’s half year results were in negative territory but with privatisations continuing, many of them below the media radar, the future does not look too grim. It made €98 million profit on selling a residual Galp Enegia holding and is to gain from privatising Portugal’s waste management company. It also is selling the Autódromo do Estoril to the local council.
TAP has been a crippling experience under the less than adequate leadership of its president Fernando Pinto who has struggled with structural problems caused by low-cost competition and with strikes.
In May this year, Pinto decided after a decade in charge, to "adjust the company to a size suitable to allow a solid base for reconstruction and the subsequent preparation for a new growth cycle."
Pinto stresses that "this work is indispensable, regardless of the ongoing privatisation process."
Pinto has presided over a strike-torn, debt-ridden business which he was instructed to prepare for sale a decade ago.
No doubt he will be handsomely rewarded and pensioned off for his period in office that has been marked by continuing industrial unrest and the recent losses that the state has had to bear and which have had a marked affect on the offer price for TAP whereby the Treasury is set to receive just €10 million for our years of sacrifice.
