The Civil Aviation Pilots Union (SPAC) today accused TAP management of "wasting" summer revenues with "millions of mistakes" throughout the year, such as outsourcing services.

In a statement quoted by the Lusa news agency, the SPAC board reiterated its warnings about the "millions of errors" of management at TAP, "that waste the revenue generated this summer, the result of high operational activity, which compromises the recovery and future of the Company, as well as the effort of Portuguese taxpayers.

Among the errors pointed out, says the statement, is the outsourcing of services to various airlines, "some based in tax havens," which, according to the union, "almost tripled" in 2022, after laying off planes and pilots.

The SPAC, which recently promoted a demonstration, in Lisbon, which was attended by more than 400 pilots, recalled that in 2018 TAP resorted to outsourcing airlines to perform its flights, paying about 200 million euros.

"This year's accounts will reflect the depth of this action with considerably more than the 200 million euros paid in 2018," the union argued, adding that these are "amounts that management does not disclose, the guardianship does not watch and the taxpayers pay."

The SPAC also recalled the nearly 55 million euros paid by TAP in compensation to passengers in 2018, "a figure that could be considered incredible, were it not for the fact that in July 2022 almost 500 flights were canceled," which is more than the total number of flights canceled that year.

"Adding the amounts of compensation to be paid by the company in the remaining 11 months of the year, the 2018 figure of 55 million will surely be exceeded in 2022," the SPAC considered quoted in the statement.

The union also accused the management of keeping two A330 planes converted to freighters idle, "accumulating losses at a hallucinating rate of one million euros per month," and which, according to SPAC, will be converted back to passenger planes, "with the inherent additional cost."

Source: Lusa