The president of the Regional Government was skeptical about the success of TAP’s restructuring plan, approved last Tuesday by Brussels. Speaking to our newspaper, Miguel Albuquerque even considered that “it will be a disaster”, similarly to previous plans, with the aggravation of being a plan that will not have consequences in the reduction of travel prices to the autonomous regions.
The Madeiran chief executive maintains the conviction that “what is fundamental at this time is for TAP to practice acceptable prices from the point of view of internal connections within this country”. Also because they have been charged by the Portuguese air carrier “astronomical prices for Madeira which are unacceptable”.
That said, and as Miguel Albuquerque has publicly stated on several occasions, “TAP’s solution was to close and reopen”. However, he added, “the solution found is to put taxpayers’ money there (at TAP). All in all, he clarified, “when taxpayers “put in more than 3 billion euros, it will be almost 350 euros for each Portuguese”. As such, “the least that TAP can do is to have acceptable prices on connections to the autonomous regions”, he concluded.