Miguel Pais do Amaral has given up on buying TAP, according to today’s Diário Económico, as he is concerned about the impact of the pilots strike which ended last night.
Just four days before final bids must be submitted, the businessman already has told his team of consultants and advisors to stand down.
Pais do Amaral is in partnership with the American union-buster Frank Lorenzo, regrets the delays in the privatisation process, particularly with regard to the disclosure of the company's results.
The ten day strike also concerns the entrepreneur who said that more time is needed to assess the impact of the strike on the company's accounts.
TAP sent out an upbeat statement to newsrooms today stating that the company managed to fly 70% of its flights each day of the strike, sometimes more.
The pilots union disagrees with this percentage and in its strike report gave numbers that are somewhat different to those presented by the airline. The union claims that only 50% of flights took off and the strike saw 85% of its pilots stay at home.
TAP added that "the effort of most workers helped prevent further damage to TAP," but stresses that "this was a strike without winners and the company now has more difficulties to face in an increasingly aggressive market."
The strike cost TAP between €25 and €35 million in revenue and its management next week will present plans to the government to increase revenue and cut costs to make up the shortfall in projected profit.
In a press conference today, the Minister of the Economy said that the company lost "almost €25 million in revenue" to which can be added "€10 million in compensation payments for of overnight stays, meals and other expenses incurred by passengers.”
In the face of these losses, "the Government is now awaiting a TAP management plan which ensures the minimisation of cash requirements" which have increased due to the strike.
In the same press conference, the Secretary of State for Transport Sérgio Monteiro said that the measures will be presented next week by TAP management which will serve to "mitigate fragility and give greater impetus to the treasury" and that the company will develop develop "a more aggressive commercial strategy" or "cost reductions."
In a perverse statement, Pires de Lima soberly added that the agreement signed in December 2014 with the nine unions at TAP, which provided for a stake in the company on privatisation, was only for members of unions that did not go on strike, thus excluding the pilots union, forgetting perhaps that this was the reason the pilots went on strike in the first place.
The share deal is only "with the unions that have honored their commitments," which leaves out the pilots union SPAC.
Pires de Lima referred to the "irresponsibility" of the pilots union, particularly about the possibility of a new strike.
"It would be unthinkable that after the cost of this strike, the country had to live with the threat of a new strike. I do not believe in this possibility. Most now have distanced themselves from the radical behavior of the SPAC union management," said the minister.
On Friday, at a press conference in Lisbon, the union stated that the cost of an agreement with TAP is less than the impact of the ten day strike.
