The terms of the privatisation was approved last Thursday at the regular weekly cabinet meeting, including the criteria for the selection of candidates and their obligations as future owners. However, the government is known to be looking for a good price, fresh capital for the company, a strategic project for its growth, guarantees as to the continued provision of public services, a contribution to the country's economy, an absence of legal impediments, and technical and management experience.


At least three investors have publicly expressed interest in bidding, including Portuguese entrepreneur Miguel Pais do Amaral, former owner of Continental Airlines Frank Lorenzo, and Spain's Globalia, owner of Air Europa.


German Efromovich, whose company was the only candidate in the previous attempt to privatise TAP, in 2012, which was eventually pulled, has told Lusa that he will only decide whether to bid again when the detailed terms of the sale are unveiled.


Brazil's Azul airline told Lusa it did not, for now, want to comment on whether it might be interested.


Under an agreement reached in recent days with unions representing various categories of TAP employees, the company has committed to not making group redundancies for two years or so long as the state has a stake, whichever is longer.


Meanwhile, left-of-centre parties in the Azores parliament, together with the conservative PPM, approved a resolution calling for TAP to remain under "direct control" of the Portuguese state as well as to maintain its services to the archipelago. The Social Democrats and People's Party, which are in power at national level, voted against.