"We need unity and a sense of strategy", said Pedro Costa Ferreira.

The official said that he is seeing the country become divided "between those who support state support for TAP and those who fight it".

"From the outset, because the main challenge for Portuguese tourism is the development of distant markets, which will bring us more tourists and less seasonality. We do not believe that we will be successful in this task if we do not maintain the 'hub', and we do not believe that we will succeed in this task to keep the hub without TAP", he said.

"In other words, which is more expensive? Supporting TAP, or going back ten years in the tourism sector, with all the implications for the national economy? As a country, we should support TAP, it is not exempting it from the need for strict management and positive results, trying to ensure that the support is as little as possible, for the shortest period of time possible", reinforced Pedro Costa Ferreira.

The president of APAVT extended his concern to SATA.

"The role that this airline plays in the Azores will hardly allow, in our opinion, to be frivolous or to have a short-term political view regarding the need to solve the problems it is now trying to solve, through a reforming strategy," he said.