“The work with the unions, with the organisations that represent TAP workers will continue, but obviously the worst that could happen, at a time when the company is recovering and showing the first positive signs of this recovery, [would be] a strike that disrupts the life of the company”, said the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing.

Pedro Nuno Santos said he was well aware of the salary cuts that workers are subject to and the pressure that this puts on their lives, but he noted that these cuts cannot begin to end before the company's situation is stabilised.

“We had a quarter in which the airline made a profit, but TAP has, in 2022, still an accumulated loss and has a restructuring plan that is still very challenging to implement”, said the minister.

However, he noted, a strike, in addition to the disruption it causes, does not take into account “the tremendous effort that the Portuguese people have made so that TAP did not disappear in 2020”.

“We have the expectation, as we have had until now, on the part of the workers, of cooperation to recover and be able to save the company”, he said, stating that this is the best way to protect jobs and also to respect the capital injection that the country put into the company.