The resignation by Manuel Santos Cardoso comes after a controversial 10-day strike called by the union at state airline TAP at the beginning of May saw the company lose tens of millions of euros as a result of flight cancellations.
The strike was called in part to enforce an agreement dating back more than a decade under which TAP pilots would be able to buy a certain proportion of shares in the company, which is to be privatised in the next few weeks. The government maintains the original agreement was illegal.
Groups representing other TAP employees and customers expressed outrage at the strike, which they saw as undermining the company’s viability at a time when some are campaigning for it to remain in state hands.
The resignation was preceded by news that the impact of the 10-day strike by TAP pilots on Portuguese hotels was not as severe as originally feared, with “just a five percent drop” in bookings, the Hotel Association of Portugal (AHP) said.
“Happily, the real fall in hotel bookings was not as severe as initially predicted”, the chair of the AHP executive board, Cristina Siza Vieira, told reporters in Lisbon.
Even so, she said, the TAP strike had a negative effect on Portugal’s image abroad.
In related developments at the national flag carrier, the two remaining bidders have shown openness to improving some of the technical and financial aspects of their privatisation bids for TAP, State Secretary Sérgio Monteiro told journalists this week.
“The dynamic to the negotiations has been positive in the sense that there was openness shown by the candidates over improving technical and even financial aspects to their proposal but we have to wait until 5pm Friday for their submission,” said Monteiro in attendance at the Infraestruturas de Portugal inauguration ceremony.
The improved proposals from the two consortiums headed by German Efromovich and David Neeleman respectively, will result in the attribution of 66 percent of the TAP group with the state secretary clearly commenting on the positives.
“Would you let me make it clear that the expectation of the state is that these proposals have the scope for improvement” said Monteiro before adding that he had been in some of the negotiation sessions ongoing since last Wednesday.
Efromovich, owner of the Avianca airline and the Synergy group threw in 12 new Airbus planes and the renovation of the Portugália fleet with Embraer planes through to 2016 in addition to €250 million to recapitalise the company in his bid.
In turn, the proposal by David Neeleman, head of the Brazilian airline Azul, in partnership with Humberto Pedrosa, owner of the Barraqueiro transport group, includes 53 new planes and investment amounting to €350 million.