“We agreed what we had to agree and our commitment is respecting the agreement we reached in December and there is nothing to change as regards that agreement,” Pires de Lima affirmed at the closing ceremony in Lisbon of the Brazil-Portugal Business Forum, also attended by Brazilian Vice President Michel Temer.
The minister thus refused to directly answer whether he would be sitting down with the pilots’ union SPAC in an effort to head off their planned strike action running from 1 to 10 May whilst commenting such a strike “shall cause serious damage to the Portuguese economy, especially the tourism sector.
“I hold hope that better understanding the situation and grasping the impact that this pre-warning is having on public opinion, the pilots reconsider,” said Pires de Lima, before adding that such a strike would cause “tremendous damage to TAP and great harm to the economy.”
While the minister refused to comment further, he did praise TAP as the “largest European carrier to Brazil” and with double the level of services than its two nearest competitors.
Furthermore, within the scope of the business forum, Pires de Lima pointed out that there was a “merger of desires” between Portugal and Brazil across a range of sectors before identifying biotechnology, aeronautics, share service, information technologies and renewable energies as the core fields of partnership with opportunities for further expansion.
Brazilian airline companies GOL and AZUL are among those reportedly interested in the TAP privatisation process.