LISBON (Reuters) – The upcoming privatization of Portuguese airline TAP “could be interesting” for IAG, depending on conditions, Luis Galliego, chief executive of British Airways’ parent company, said on Wednesday.
“We are always ready to welcome big companies and big brands into our portfolio. We want to see the conditions of the privatization of TAP, we think it could be interesting for us,” Luis Gallego said at a conference in Lisbon. IAG also owns the airlines Iberia, Aer Lingus and Vueling.
The Portuguese government, which is expected to approve the legal framework for the privatization of TAP on Thursday, has clarified its intention to retain a strategic stake in the company.
At least two other major airlines, Lufthansa and Air France-KLM, have expressed interest in TAP.
TAP CEO Luis Rodrigues said at the same event that he expected Thursday’s legal framework to mark a “big day” for the company.
Luis Gallego also said that travel demand was “very, very strong”, especially from the business sector, which continues to recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, adding that this trend was showing more quickly in Spain than in Great Britain.
(Reporting Sergio Goncalves, Augustin Turpin, editing by Kate Entringer)
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