“It is vital to have common sense and to remain calm when decisions have to be taken, together with all workers, unions and all ‘stakeholders’. More than drawing up a good plan and showing it to Brussels, which is very important, is to be able to implement it and to respond, to ensure the recovery over the next three to four years that we want,” Ramiro Sequeira said to Lusa.

Sequeira said that the demand forecasts for 2021, made by IATA and Eurocontrol, are at between 55 and 60 percent of the demand for 2019, in the best-case scenario, demonstrating “a very slow recovery curve for the next few years”.

Ramiro Sequeira said that TAP’s main priorities for the coming months were to resume operations in a safe and sustainable manner and to finalise a restructuring plan that would facilitate a real recovery plan for TAP at the same time.

For Ramiro Sequeira, it is essential to resume operations in a “totally safe” way, but also in a sustainable way.

“We are only operating at 30 percent of what we were supposed to and this is a conscious measure, because we cannot operate flights that are not profitable or that have little occupation, which would put TAP in an even more difficult position,” he said, pointing out that the main markets, Brazil and the United States, are still under severe restrictions, thus reducing demand, which is also aggravated by the low demand on medium-course routes, where TAP is exposed to greater competition from ‘low-cost’ airlines.

TAP’s new CEO replaced Antonoaldo Neves who had held the position since 2018.

Antonoaldo Neves left TAP following the agreement between the Government and private shareholders to reorganise TAP’s corporate structure - with the departure of David Neeleman - and will be temporarily replaced by Ramiro Sequeira.

The Portuguese state now holds 72.5 percent of TAP’s capital, businessman Humberto Pedrosa 22.5 percent and workers the remaining 5 percent of the group.