TAP Air Portugal transported 7.58 million passengers during the first semester of this year, i.e. a 30% increase compared to the previous year, but still slightly below pre-Covid levels.
The Portuguese public company, which the Lisbon government plans to partially privatize, said its intercontinental routes to Brazil, North America and Africa carried 2.17 million passengers in the January-June period 2023, i.e. 14.7% more than in the first half of 2019. Traffic that “demonstrated the solid recovery of the company” internationally, said TAP Air Portugal in its press release.
However, its total passenger traffic is still 4% lower compared to the same period in 2019. Its short/medium haul traffic in Europe, including mainland Portugal and the Portuguese islands in the Atlantic, carried fewer passengers , although the number of tourists to Portugal has already exceeded those seen in 2019.
TAP Air Portugal is being restructured under a 3.2 billion euro ($3.51 billion) rescue package approved by Brussels, but the government wants to launch its privatization, while intending to retain a strategic holding.
