Funchal 09-10-2012 Miguel Albuquerque apresenta candidatura à liderança do PSD/Madeira no Hotel Orquídea esta tarde Helder Santos / Aspress

Albuquerque says TAP is a total disaster

The President of the Regional Government highlighted, this morning, the inability of TAP to respond to the needs of the Autonomous Regions and also of the communities, which is why he was not surprised by the announcement that there will be no direct flight between Caracas and Madeira, nor between Porto Santo and Porto, during the winter.

“This whole TAP process has been a disaster. It has been a disaster for taxpayers. It has been a disaster for the company and at this moment operations to Madeira no longer depend on TAP, they depend on the operators who have filled in what TAP did not do”, said Miguel Albuquerque on the sidelines of a visit to the Caniçal auction.

Albuquerque recalled that he had sent a letter to the president of TAP, during his visit to Venezuela, to warn of the need to strengthen links with communities, but that this was not accepted. “It is difficult, once again, for us to invoke the need for a flag company if that flag company does not have the capacity, or is not oriented, to understand those principles that justified nationalisation, which was the connection to the autonomous regions and the connection to the communities”, he said.

In addition, he indicated that there are no benefits for taxpayers with the company’s renationalisation. “For Caracas, it is a connection that TAP has not been able to reinforce. For the autonomous regions, as you can see, at the moment, there are a number of companies, one of which will fill 20% of the current connection offer, such as Ryanair, which does not cost a penny to taxpayers,” he said.

From Diário Notícias