LISBONNE (Reuters) – Air France -KLM is ready to present its project as part of the Portuguese Tap privatization process, which Lisbon hopes to carry out this year, its general manager, Ben Smith said on Friday.
The Franco-Dutch group has already expressed its interest in this privatization, just like its rivals Lufthansa and Iag, owner of British Airways.
“Air France-KLM is ready to present its project as part of the TAP privatization process, a file that we have been following for a long time,” said Ben Smith in a statement published on the occasion of Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Portugal.
“Portugal is a large country and a strategic market for Air France-KLM. Tap Air Portugal is an emblematic company that has established an powerful hub in Lisbon, open to the world,” added the general manager of Air France-KLM.
He said he wanted to “maintain and develop the strong brand of TAP and its high value hub”, “strengthen the connectivity of the whole country, including secondary cities, and invest in the local economy”.
Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, who had previously insisted on a total privatization of TAP, now declares that a partial sale is a possibility.
(Sergio Goncalves, Jean-Stéphane Brosse for the )
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