This means the final agreement between Atlantic Gateway, owned by Humberto Pedrosa and David Neeleman, and the Portuguese government will not be finalised before 30 April as promised on 6 February when they signed the draft agreement, the infrastructure minister, Pedro Marques said today at a parliamentary committee meeting.

The minister accused the previous government of making a “last-minute privatisation”, which the civil aviation authority later called into question.

In his speech about TAPN, the minister stressed the fact that TAP would be the largest shareholder and have “a Word to say in the company’s fundamental decisions".

The Portuguese government is going to pay €1.9 million to raise its stake in the company from 34% to 50% following negotiations with Gateway, which had acquired 61% of the company’s capital and is now going to have between 45% and 50% depending on how many shares the workers want to buy for themselves.