The TAP Air Portugal group widened its losses last year, to 1.6 billion euros (barely more in francs) once morest 1.2 billion in 2020, due in particular to the implementation of its restructuring program , the Portuguese carrier announced on Monday.
ATS
TAP’s results were penalized by “non-recurring costs of 1.024 billion euros” related to the restructuring plan, the company said in a press release.
The loss of TAP in 2021 is however lower than that of 1.75 billion euros provided for in the public aid plan, underlines the group.
The group’s activity was mainly impacted by “the accumulated losses” of the aeronautical maintenance subsidiary in Brazil, which TAP had announced the closure at the beginning of the year.
The closure of TAP M&E (TAP Maintenance and Engineering), which has contributed to weighing down TAP’s accounts in recent years, was one of the demands of the European Commission in return for the aid plan it validated in December.
In 2021, TAP was also penalized during the first half of the year by restrictions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, which paralyzed air transport, the group indicates. Its international flights to Brazil and the United States, two of its main markets, did not resume until the last quarter of last year, he recalls.
TAP’s turnover, however, increased by 31% in 2021, to 1.38 billion euros, thanks in particular to the increase in revenue from passenger transport and freight.
The Portuguese airline group, whose financial difficulties have increased with the Covid-19 pandemic, was urgently saved in 2020 by the State.
The government had to resolve to renationalise it in order to bail out its coffers in exchange for a restructuring plan.
For this year, the airline recalls the “uncertainty” which reigns due to the war in Ukraine and in particular “the impact on inflation and on fuel prices in the coming months”.
afp