“We had planned to relaunch our route to Russia and we have decided to postpone it and we will consider it again next year”, declared TAP's executive president, Christine Ourmières-Widener.

Speaking to Portuguese journalists in Brussels, at a time of intense armed confrontation in Ukraine after the Russian invasion of the country on February 24, the official said that she still foresees a summer season in which TAP will “reach more than 85% capacity".

“We are increasing our operation. It is challenging because we have to prepare all the stakeholders, airports, borders, traffic, among other things, and everything is being prepared”, said Christine Ourmières-Widener.

According to the official, due to the recent waves of covid-19 caused by the Ómicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 and the “tragedy of Ukraine”, the peak of this season “will be a little later this year”, perhaps “at the end of May".