TAP Portugal : TP : TAP

BA heading toward second strike, TAP avoids one

The public sniping between British Airways and the Unite union continued yesterday, while TAP Portugal and its pilots struck a more conciliatory tone and reached a deal that cancelled a potentially devastating six-day strike.
TAP pilots represented by the SPAC union called off the March 26-31 work stoppage after agreeing to a new contract. "The agreement includes a pay rise of 1.8%, the same as for the other TAP unions, and equal sharing of productivity gains by pilots and the airline," TAP said.
President and CEO Fernando Pinto said that "common sense has prevailed" and considered the agreement "good for both sides." He added that the carrier "will make every effort to minimize the effects and guarantee normal operation over the Easter period."
Meanwhile, BA withdrew travel privileges from those flight attendants who participated in the March 20-22 walkout, Unite said. The union condemned the move, saying that "many" of its members "rely on the travel assistance to get to work following BA's decision to close its regional bases and require the vast majority of cabin crew to operate out of [London] Heathrow, no matter where they may live." It added that it "will challenge this vindictive move in whatever way seems appropriate." Unite has scheduled its second strike for March 27-30

TAP Portugal swings to 2009 profit

TAP Portugal recorded a 2009 net profit of €59 million ($79 million), a sweeping reversal from the €209 million deficit incurred in 2008, crediting its change in fortunes to declining fuel prices, cost-cutting measures, a "selective" capacity reduction and a commercial policy that allowed it to minimize the fall in revenue.
The carrier said in a statement that it had achieved a "quite remarkable result which allows TAP to reposition again on the path to. . .profit" following the "exception" in 2008. Operating revenue in 2009 fell 11% to €1.92 billion but operating profit was €65 million compared to an operating loss of €156 million in 2008. Passengers carried declined 3.4% to 8.44 million, still its second-highest total ever.
Parent TAP Group remained slightly in the red with a loss of €3.5 million, narrowed from a €285 million deficit in 2008, mainly owing to the negative impact of buying back shares in Groundforce. It decided last year to regain full control of the ground handling company to improve its service levels, Executive Chairman and CEO Fernando Pinto told this website in a recent interview in Lisbon. But TAP now is looking to divest Groundforce partially or totally following a December decision by Portugal's competition authority that it is in breach of EU rules on third-party handling

Qatar Airways interessada em 40 por cento da TAP

Segundo a estação, as negociações entre os governos português e do Qatar já estão a decorrer e a primeira operação de privatização da companhia aérea nacional poderá ser anunciada nos próximos dias.

O PÚBLICO contactou a TAP no sentido de confirmar esta informação mas a companhia prefere não comentar este assunto.

Esta notícia surge depois de o primeiro-ministro, José Sócrates, acompanhado do ministro das Finanças, Teixeira dos Santos, dos Negócios Estrangeiros, Luís Amado, das Obras Públicas, António Mendonça e da Economia, Vieira da Silva terem estado em visita oficial nos Emirados Árabes e no Qatar. Em cima da mesa esteve o reforço da presença de empresas portuguesas na região do Golfo Pérsico, bem como a apresentação do plano de privatizações.

O primeiro-ministro disse então que a deslocação ao Qatar servia para fomentar investimento.

Lufthansa, Qatar Airways et le groupe IAG sont intéressés par la privatisation de la compagnie publique portugaise TAP, qui doit être lancée par le gouvernement dans les prochains mois, selon la presse portugaise lundi.

IAG plots bid for Portugal flag carrier TAP

International Airlines Group, formed by the merger of British Airways and Iberia, is plotting a bid for Portuguese flag carrier Air Portugal (TAP), The Sunday Times reported. Citing industry sources the newspaper said informal talks have been held between IAG and TAP and an investment bank has been hired to conduct an auction of the Portuguese airline, which is expected to kick off this summer.
A spokesman for IAG declined to comment on the report.
Portugal has been forced to privatise the airline as a condition of its 78 billion euro ($109 billion) bailout by the European Union and International Monetary Fund.
Other potential suitors have also emerged, including in South America, where a Brazil government source told Reuters on Friday that Brazil may finance the acquisition of a stake in TAP by its domestic air carrier TAM. The Sunday Times said some analysts have valued TAP at about 500 million euro. It said IAG would likely finance any bid in shares.

IAG Eyes Brazil Potential Via TAP

International Airlines Group (IAG) , formed by the merger of British Airways and Iberia, said it sees few consolidation opportunities in Europe, but will look at TAP Portugal.
“There is not much potential for future consolidation in Europe ... the sector is already concentrated with KLM-Air France, Lufthansa,” IAG IR manager Andrew Barker told a conference on Tuesday.
“We will be looking at Portugal’s TAP. Its strong Brazilian presence would be key to strengthening our position in Latin America,” Barker said.
Portugal has been forced to privatize TAP as a condition of its 78 billion euro ($109 billion) bailout by the European Union and International Monetary Fund.
The auction of the Portuguese airline is expected to kick off this summer, with some analysts valuing it at about 500 million euros.
Any acquisition would have to fit IAG’s strategic requirements and financial goals, Barker said, adding BA will be focusing on growing in Asia and cementing its transatlantic business.
He said Madrid’s Barajas airport, Iberia’s traditional hub, offers organic growth opportunities, “although these are somewhat limited by the infrastructure constraints of a major hub.”
IAG already has transferred some of its routes to Spanish low-cost carrier Vueling and it plans to use the carrier to make its shorthaul business more competitive, Barker said.
“In Spain we still have plans to make the shorthaul more competitive. Vueling is part of these plans. We are trying to see what role Vueling can play in cost cutting,” he said.
Barcelona-based Vueling is the second most profitable low-cost carrier after Irish budget airline Ryanair, and is a market leader in the main Spanish airports. It said last week it plans to increase passengers by 15% in 2011 through a mix of organic and non-organic growth.
It also plans to quadruple the number of connecting passengers, providing higher yields, Vueling IR manager Sonia Jerez told the conference.

TAP Maintenance & Engineering plans to expand its engine shop in Lisbon and join forces with other airlines and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) providers to support the Airbus A350 independently from the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

Servicing engines will be the main growth area for TAP M&E over the next years. The company specialises in the CFM International CFM56 family and has full overhaul capability from the CFM56-3 series up to the -7B model. Stemming from the days when TAP operated the A310, the MRO provider also supports General Electric CF6-80C2 powerplants and is now evaluating whether to expand this capability to the -80E1 variant for the A330. This is to be decided in the next few months, says Jorge Sobral, TAP's board member responsible for the M&E unit.

The overhaul shop has a maximum annual capacity of 120 engines. About 70% of the serviced powerplants are from third-party customers,...

...with the rest coming from the TAP fleet. Even though the facility has not been filled in the past few years,...

.....the maintenance company plans to extend capacity by 25% to 150 overhauls in future, through increasing efficiency and expanding the plant.

However, Sobral cautions that building will not begin within the next two years. "We are doing it in phases (because) we have to be careful not to stop working in the current workshop," he says.

TAP is looking at a follow-up model for the CFM56 overhaul line. CFM's successor Leap model would be a "logical step", says Carlos Ruivo, marketing and sales vice-president at TAP M&E. But he says the company has also studied the Pratt & Whitney PW1000G and built contacts with the US manufacturer, and that the geared turbofan is a serious contender for future engagement. A decision will be made in around six months.

EXTERNAL CUSTOMERS

In the airframe MRO business, the third-party work ratio is roughly reversed. TAP fleet provides around 60% of work, the remainder coming from external customers. This is unlikely to change, even after the acquisition of the former Varig's technical arm, VEM, in Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2005.

"Airframe maintenance never was a lucrative business," says Sobral.

TAP's own fleet growth and increasing aircraft utilisation has largely occupied the MRO division over the past 10 years. Extensive checks on the carrier's long-haul fleet have been transferred to Brazil not just because of lower labour rates but also to free up capacity in Lisbon, as there is no space for expansion there. Sobral says that even though airframe MRO is not a significant business, hangar bays are needed because the work is a central part of flight hour-based, full-service packages for third-party customers.

COST ADVANTAGES

Airframe maintenance is set to increase at the Brazilian sites as a result of Latin America's airline growth and cost advantages for carriers in North America. The long-term trend, however, is that the labour-intensive airframe maintenance work will decrease with the introduction of new aircraft.

A challenge will be to support the ordered fleet of 12 A350s. While manufacturers have tightened their grip of the MRO market and restrict free access to maintenance documentation, ...

TAP M&E has decided not to become part of an OEM network. "We have had that ­experience in the past, and we didn't like it," says Sobral.

The parent company has instead joined a group of airlines that are planning to pool their resources and split the maintenance work aircraft between them. With their ­combined fleet order, the airlines hope to have enough leverage against the OEMs to ­secure ­access to the required documentation and be able to develop the respective technical ­capabilities.

The idea follows previous MRO partnerships, such as the former Atlas and KSSU groups among European airlines between the 1970s and 1990s. The crucial difference is, however, that the carriers today do not want to work together just to share the maintenance burden of their own fleets, but to offer their services also to third-party customers.

The group, which has been meeting for some time, mainly comprises European airlines but also includes some North American operators. Among them are a number of airline-affiliated MRO providers who compete with each other on the open market, reports Sobral. "We want to compete. But we want to compete in a decent way, not in a way that the OEMs like to impose."

The Portuguese government has selected Brazilian conglomerate Synergy Aerospace as the sole bidder in the privatization of ailing flag carrier TAP Portugal (ATW Daily News, Sept. 26).

State Secretary for Transport and Public Works Sergio Monteiro said the government would now work with Synergy to finalize a binding bid, according to a Reuters report.

It hopes to seal a deal by the end of the year for completion in the 2013 first quarter, Reuters said.

TAP has run up debts estimated to be around €1.2 billion ($1.6 billion) and privatization of the airline is part of a disposal of state assets required by the terms of Portugal's €78 billion European Union(EU)/International Monetary Fund bailout (ATW Daily News, Aug. 20).

Monteiro said that 10 unspecified companies had showed an interest in the privatization, and both International Airlines Group and Lufthansa have shown interest.

Analysts say TAP’s routes to Brazil—Latin America’s largest country and a former Portuguese colony—are its key selling point.

Owned by entrepreneur Germán Efromovich, Synergy is the majority owner of AviancaTaca; it also controls Colombian airline Avian and Avian Brazil.

Financial pundits are querying how Synergy plans to structure a deal as EU rules prohibit non-European shareholders from controlling more than 49% of an EU carrier.

Monteiro said the Portuguese government has priority in buying back the airline if the company acquiring it eventually decides to sell.

The Portuguese government also insists TAP’s hub must stay in Lisbon.

The government is also preparing to sell airport operator ANA by the end of the year