A source from the airline also reported that the city hall lifted the suspension on Sevenair Maintenance, the group's aircraft maintenance services division, whose activity had also been suspended.

“The suspension of maintenance services was lifted because they managed to find an email from us, dated January 29, which warned that, because the State had not paid the instalment we were expecting, we would not be able to pay [Cascais Dinâmica, the municipal company that manages Tires aerodrome] the instalment that was scheduled for the following day,” he said, highlighting that at the moment Sevenair has paid “everything except the invoices” that it considers it does not owe.

Sevenair said it had asked the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC), which regulates the sector, for an opinion on the debt dispute.

At issue is a disagreement regarding an alleged debt in handling fees worth 107 thousand euros plus VAT (or a debt of 132,471.95 euros, according to the local authority) that Cascais City Council, through the municipal company Cascais Dinâmica, manager of Cascais Municipal Aerodrome, is demanding, but which the company considers “not to be due”.

Due to the lack of payment of this alleged debt, a plane from the Trás-os-Montes/Algarve airline (which connects Bragança, Vila Real, Viseu, Cascais and Portimão), originating in Bragança and destined for Portimão, was held since Monday at the Tires aerodrome, by decision of Cascais Dinâmica, so the air route has been interrupted since then.

Sevenair considered that what the city hall is seizing is the public service because the plane is rented and is not even owned by the carrier.

In a statement, the Cascais Socialist Party warned, however, about “the mismanagement situation in which the Cascais Municipal Aerodrome, in Tires, finds itself, considering that the retention of the plane “from an airline that operates within the scope of the public service reveals the level of degradation” in the relations between the municipal structure and the economic agents that use it. The Cascais Socialists considered that “it is now clear” that “conditions are not in place to move forward” with the tender for the private management of the aerodrome, recently announced by the local authority, and called for “urgent intervention by the Government so that all flights planned within the scope of the public air service are guaranteed and that normality is restored at the Tires aerodrome”. On Monday, in a brief statement, without adding details, the Secretary of State for Infrastructure, Hugo Espírito Santo, stated that he was following the development of the dispute between the Cascais City Council and Sevenair, “not foreseeing any reason to suspend the regional air connection”.

Lusa questioned Cascais City Council again today about the evolution of this situation and, on Monday, questioned ANAC, still awaiting responses from both the municipality and the regulator.

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